June 2007 PrepTest, Section 2, Question 16
Taylor: Researchers at a local university claim that 61 percent of the information transferred during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals. But this claim, like all such mathematically precise claims, is suspect, because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.
Taylor: Researchers at a local university claim that 61 percent of the information transferred during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals. But this claim, like all such mathematically precise claims, is suspect, because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.
Sandra: While precision is unobtainable in many areas of life, it is commonplace in others. Many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise results, which should not be doubted merely because of their precision.
Taylor: Researchers at a local university claim that 61 percent of the information transferred during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals. But this claim, like all such mathematically precise claims, is suspect, because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.
Sandra: While precision is unobtainable in many areas of life, it is commonplace in others. Many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise results, which should not be doubted merely because of their precision.
Taylor: Researchers at a local university claim that 61 percent of the information transferred during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals. But this claim, like all such mathematically precise claims, is suspect, because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.
The statements above provide the most support for holding that Sandra would disagree with Taylor about which one of the following statements?
Research might reveal that 61 percent of the information taken in during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals.
It is possible to determine whether 61 percent of the information taken in during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals.
The study of verbal and nonverbal communication is an area where one cannot expect great precision in one's research results.
Some sciences can yield mathematically precise results that are not inherently suspect.
If inherently suspect claims are usually false, then the majority of claims made by scientists are false as well.
Explanations
Okay, so some researcher got a result of 61%. Taylor thinks that’s so precise of a number that it must be suspect (“like all such mathematically precise claims”). Sandra says, “actually, science can obtain those extremely precise results, even though that degree of precision is unobtainable in many other areas.” Thus, their disagreement is whether a precise result inherently makes the research suspect.
I think both would agree with this. Taylor says 61% is suspect, not impossible.
Sandra doesn’t speak to the possibility of precision for this specific study, just scientific disciplines generally.
Sandra doesn’t state her opinion on this.
Yup, perfect. Taylor says “all such mathematically precise claims” are suspect. Sandra says that many scientific disciplines can obtain those precise results.
Neither person says claims by scientists are “false”—Taylor just thinks that their claims are suspect.
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