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Zorluk: ZorStrengthen

Evaluate the flawed causal claims, predictions, and historical hypotheses presented below. Which specific piece of new evidence provides the most robust logical support for each argument's main conclusion? Match each argument (left) to its strongest supporting evidence (right).

  • An anthropologist argues that the sudden adoption of bronze tools by the highland Q'ero tribes resulted from peaceful trade with lowland empires, not military conquest. The discovered bronze artifacts lack the decorative engravings typical of lowland soldiers' weapons.Excavations of the highland sites yielded tools exclusively designed for harvesting crops and shaping wood, without any items designed for combat.
  • A marine biologist asserts that the unprecedented bleaching of the Aethel Coral Reef is primarily caused by chemical runoff from a newly opened coastal desalination plant, rather than the recently documented slight increase in local ocean temperatures.Ecosystems sharing identical thermal profiles to the affected area, but isolated from the facility's effluent, have maintained normal, healthy pigmentation.
  • A retail analyst predicts that the bookstore chain PageTurner will see a significant increase in profit margins next quarter. The chain recently replaced its human cashiers with automated kiosks, which cost considerably less to operate than paying employee wages.Implementation of similar operational cost-cutting measures in analogous markets has consistently maintained baseline consumer transaction rates and inventory shrinkage levels.
  • A neurologist hypothesizes that frequent engagement with short-form video content fundamentally reduces an adult's baseline attention span. A clinical survey found that adults who watch short-form videos for over three hours daily performed significantly worse on sustained-focus tests than non-watchers.Historical medical records indicate that the two surveyed demographics exhibited indistinguishable performance metrics on concentration tasks a decade ago.

Cevap

The correct matches validate causal links by establishing controls, ruling out reverse causality, eliminating negative side-effects, and corroborating structural assumptions.
Each correct match directly addresses the specific logical vulnerability of its corresponding argument. The archaeological evidence removes the military utility of the bronze, the ecological evidence isolates the chemical variable from the temperature variable, the financial evidence protects the cost-savings from revenue losses, and the medical evidence proves the chronological direction of the psychological effect.

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1
Analyze the Anthropology argument (L1)
Identify the logical gap: A lack of decorative engravings does not definitively prove the tools were not used in war.
Matching it with the evidence of functionally non-martial tools (R1) closes this gap, supporting the peaceful trade conclusion.
2
Analyze the Marine Biology argument (L2)
Identify the logical gap: Both chemicals and heat are present, and heat is a known alternative cause for bleaching.
Matching it with evidence of a control ecosystem (R2) isolates the chemical runoff as the primary culprit, proving heat alone did not cause the bleaching.
3
Analyze the Economics argument (L3)
Identify the logical gap: Lower wage costs only improve profit margins if revenues and other operational costs remain stable.
Matching it with evidence of stable transaction rates and inventory shrinkage (R3) rules out the potential negative side effects of kiosks.
4
Analyze the Neuroscience argument (L4)
Identify the logical gap: The survey is a cross-sectional snapshot, leaving the argument vulnerable to reverse causality (people with short attention spans preferring short videos).
Matching it with longitudinal data proving the groups were equal beforehand (R4) confirms the direction of causation.

Anahtar Kavram

Strengthening arguments by closing causal gaps, ruling out alternative explanations, and validating implicit assumptions.
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