求教 Prep07-Q32 一道BF题目分析

teddybearj4

Paleontologist: About 2.8 million years ago, many species that lived near the ocean floor suffered substantial population declines.These declines coincided with the onset of an ice age.The notion that cold killed those bottom-dwelling creatures outright is misguided, however; temperatures near the ocean floor would have changed very little.Nevertheless, the cold probably did cause the population declines, though indirectly.Many bottom-dwellers depended for food on plankton, small organisms that lived close to the surface and sank to the bottom when they died.Most probably, the plankton suffered a severe population decline as a result of sharply lower temperatures at the surface, depriving many bottom-dwellers of food.

In the paleontologist's reasoning, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

(A) The first introduces the hypothesis proposed by the paleontologist; the second is a judgment offered in spelling out that hypothesis.

(B) The first introduces the hypothesis proposed by the paleontologist; the second is a position that the paleontologist opposes.

(C) The first is an explanation challenged by the paleontologist; the second is an explanation proposed by the paleontologist.

(D) The first is a judgment advanced in support of a conclusion reached by the paleontologist; the second is that conclusion.

(E) The first is a generalization put forward by the paleontologist; the second presents certain exceptional cases in which that generalization does not hold.

NN能不能分析一下这题的句子间关系呀？自己在做BF的时候总是一下子很难弄清楚！自己试着分析了一下，NN们来拍砖啊！！！

Paleontologist: About 2.8 million years ago, many species that lived near the ocean floor suffered substantial population declines.These declines coincided with the onset of an ice age.（background info）The notion that cold killed those bottom-dwelling creatures outright is misguided,however; temperatures near the ocean floor would have changed very little. （phenomenon ?）Nevertheless, the cold probably did cause the population declines, though indirectly.(conclusion ? ) Many bottom-dwellers depended for food on plankton, small organisms that lived close to the surface and sank to the bottom when they died. (phenomenon ?)
Most probably, the plankton suffered a severe population decline as a result of sharply lower temperatures at the surface, depriving many bottom-dwellers of food.(evidnence? to support the conclusion)

现在做BF题目总是在选项间徘徊犹豫很久，最后又选了个错误答案！请教NN肿么办啊？

teddybearj4

不好意思，忘记贴答案了~答案是A~ Thx in adcance！！！

teddybearj4

顶顶帖~求指教~

howie0420

犹豫了半天A和D，选了D= =。。。

但仔细看了下，最后说的是most probably，所以是作者的猜测吧，所以不会是conclusion，只能是hypothesis。

而且我觉得 conclusion 是 the notion that cold killed those bottom-dwell creatures outright is misguided.
B 没有 oppose
C 没有 challenge
E 不是 generalization

新手= =随便拍。。。

howie0420

分号后面是帮忙解释这个conclusion的。。= =我是这个觉得的。。

babybearmm

Please refer to my analysis in purple. Thanks.

Paleontologist: About 2.8 million years ago, many species that lived near the ocean floor suffered substantial population declines.
These declines coincided with the onset of an ice age.

These two sentences state some facts (correlation), based on which some other people have proposed a notion (a causal relationship - "cold killed those bottom dwelling creatures"), a notion refuted by the author as below.

The notion that cold killed those bottom dwelling creatures outright is misguided, however; temperatures near the ocean floor would have changed very little.

This sentence points out the author's objection to the notion, and provides explanation to the objection.

Nevertheless, the cold probably did cause the population declines, though indirectly.

Please carefully note the word "indirectly", and compare it to the word "outright" in the preceding sentence. What does the author mean?
Although the author 100% rejected the notion ("cold killed those bottom dwelling creatures outright"), the author points out a possibility that the cold INDIRECTLY caused the population declines.  Consequently, this sentence is the author's key point (rather than explanation/facts), and because the author uses the word "probably" to indicate some uncertainty, we call this statement a "hypothesis".

Many bottom dwellers depended for food on plankton, small organisms that lived close to the surface and sank to the bottom when they died.
Most probably, the plankton suffered a severe population decline as a result of sharply lower temperatures at the surface, depriving many bottom-dwellers of food.

In these two sentences, the author provides reasoning to support his preceding hypothesis. The reasoning is:

1. bottom dwellers feed on plankton
2. coldness causes the decline of plankton population
Taken 1&2 together, coldness posits a tough situation for the survival of bottom dwellers, and thus may indirectly result in the population declines of bottom dwellers.
For this boldface question, we need to know that for the 2nd boldfaced sentence
First, it is a reasoning (judgement)
Second, it serves to support the foregoing hypothesis.

Taken together, the correct answer should be A.

In the paleontologist's reasoning, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

(A) The first introduces the hypothesis proposed by the paleontologist; the second is a judgment offered in spelling out that hypothesis.

(B) The first introduces the hypothesis proposed by the paleontologist; the second is a position that the paleontologist opposes.

(C) The first is an explanation challenged by the paleontologist; the second is an explanation proposed by the paleontologist.

(D) The first is a judgment advanced in support of a conclusion reached by the paleontologist; the second is that conclusion.

(E) The first is a generalization put forward by the paleontologist; the second presents certain exceptional cases in which that generalization does not hold.

NN能不能分析一下这题的句子间关系呀？自己在做BF的时候总是一下子很难弄清楚！自己试着分析了一下，NN们来拍砖啊！！！

Paleontologist: About 2.8 million years ago, many species that lived near the ocean floor suffered substantial population declines.These declines coincided with the onset of an ice age.（background info）The notion that cold killed those bottom-dwelling creatures outright is misguided,however; temperatures near the ocean floor would have changed very little. （phenomenon ?）Nevertheless, the cold probably did cause the population declines, though indirectly.(conclusion ? ) Many bottom-dwellers depended for food on plankton, small organisms that lived close to the surface and sank to the bottom when they died. (phenomenon ?)
Most probably, the plankton suffered a severe population decline as a result of sharply lower temperatures at the surface, depriving many bottom-dwellers of food.(evidnence? to support the conclusion)

现在做BF题目总是在选项间徘徊犹豫很久，最后又选了个错误答案！请教NN肿么办啊？

-- by 会员 teddybearj4 (2012/3/14 11:23:02)

babybearmm

Please see Ron's explanation here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/cr-paleontologist-about-2-8-million-years-ago-t5516.html

once you figure out that's the conclusion, there are only two answer choices left in play: (a) and (b), the only two choices that actually say that's the conclusion (the "hypothesis proposed by the paleontologist").
note that "a generalization" and "an explanation" are not going to represent conclusions. a "judgment" could be a conclusion, but not in the case of choice (d), because there it's followed immediately by "...in support of X".

-from Ron

I think my above analysis, my personal interpretation, is correct. I called it "the author's key point" - that's just what I actually thought. Jonathan also pointed out:

Notice that this is perfectly in fitting with the wording of the correct answer choice (A), which does not use the word "conclusion" outright, but rather "hypothesis" and "judgement." While these words are both very "conclusion-like," they are not as explicit as conclusions.

teddybearj4

wow, 谢谢baby姐好详细的解答呀~

以前轻易的认为只要抓好转折词、关联词，BF题目就能做好。这道题又狠狠的让我们学习到在BF句子中一些adv.和像在RC中的态度词，在表达author态度的重要性了。学到了！谢谢baby姐！

babybearmm

不客气~
我感觉只要不是特简单的题，BF一定要理解整个argument的。如果那么简单，所有的逻辑关系都用逻辑词汇一目了然表示了，干吗还出BF啊，或者就算出BF干吗还是700+题目啊？

alicezyk

解释得太好了 顶一个！