LSAT-3-1-18

The question whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is certainly imprecise, because we are not sure how different from us something might be and still count as “intelligent life.” Yet we cannot just decide to define “intelligent life” in some more precise way since it is likely that we will find and recognize intelligent life elsewhere in the universe only if we leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities.

18.   The passage, if seen as an objection to an antecedent claim, challenges that claim by:

(A) showing the claim to be irrelevant to the issue at hand

(B) citing examples that fail to fit proposed definition of “intelligent life”

(C) claiming that “intelligent life” cannot be adequately defined

(D) arguing that the claim, if acted on, would be counterproductive

(E) maintaining that the claim is not supported by the available evidence

正确答案是(D),请问，为什么Ｃ不对呢？

此问题已经被解答，请搜索后在提问, 不过我知道有时候可能是标题不统一, 找不到.......

"we cannot just decide to define “intelligent life” in some more precise way since...."

这里说"我们不能去DEFINE", 而不是说我们能不能的问题, C 说不能，premature

确实尝试过搜索,没能找到1

谢谢斑竹耐心解答.

18.   The passage, if seen as an objection to an antecedent claim, challenges that claim by:

(A) showing the claim to be irrelevant to the issue at hand

(B) citing examples that fail to fit proposed definition of “intelligent life”

(C) claiming that “intelligent life” cannot be adequately defined

(D) arguing that the claim, if acted on, would be counterproductive（D）

(E) maintaining that the claim is not supported by the available evidence

我的理解： 智能生命是否存在这个问题是不确定的。

因为我们不确定跟我们不一样的东西有可能是什么,(暗示有可能以后不能被称作是智能生命。)

所以我们不能定义智能生命.只有在leave our definitions open to new, unimagined possibilities 的情况下,才有可能定义智能生命.

18题,整篇文章是如何challenge  the antecedent claim (智能生命是否存在这个问题是不确定的。)

D:arguing that the claim, if acted on, would be counterproductive

说如果claim 起作用,会counterproductive(反生产的, 使达不到预期目标的)  

不理解.表示相矛盾的吗?哪里跟哪里矛盾?

The main point of the argument is: it is not precise to ask such a question, which is, whether intelligent life exists else where in the universe

Its focus is not on the question of whether intelligent life exists elsewhere itself.

The indication of the main point is: if you ask this question, you are implicitly defining what intelligent life is. And this is wrong. Because if you try to define it, it would make the pursuit of the question impossible. (counterproductive)

看了n遍文章，终于搞懂它在干嘛了！然后18就懂了。大家一遍一遍读题干吧