PrepTest 149

Incorrect. (Lines 36-38) While there is a fictional nature to these experiments—especially the ""what-if scenarios""—the Author isn't calling this a movie to highlight that fiction. Even though she criticizes the experiments, it's not for revealing fictional information. She believes their results do bring up relevant information—they just are too limited and don't change things up enough!

Correct. Question Type:
Must Be True

Strategy Overview:
Head back to the statement in question and use the role of the paragraph and context clues to define the role of the phrase in question

Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
The phrase in question shows up in Paragraph 5, where we noted that the Author points out a flaw in the way that other cosmologists do their experiments. She starts, however, by describing those experiments.

The phrase here plays into that method of experimentation. According to the first few lines of that paragraph, the scientists tweak a constant while leaving others the same. From there, they ""play the movie,"" which involves doing calculations, what-if scenarios, and computer simulations to ""see what disasters occur."" So, in other words, they set up the situation and then see it play out, just like with a movie, where the action kicks off and then you follow it through to the end.

Let's find an answer reflecting that!

(Note that this also calls back to the analogy from the first paragraph, so if you headed back there to remind yourself of what was said, there was nothing wrong with that! We do think there are enough context clues in Paragraph 5 to answer this question, but getting more information from Paragraph 1 wouldn't hurt.)

Answer Explanation:
(Lines 36-38) The Author notes that the scientists ""play the movie"" of the universe with a constant tweaked ""to see what disasters occur."" In other words, they set up the universe, hit play, and then see what happens in the end. This answer reflects the Author's meaning in context, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
While you want to use context to define the meaning behind key phrases in a question like this, don't lose sight of the language itself! Playing a movie is a passive event where you hit a button and then sit back and see what happens. The correct answer needs to reflect this meaning in some way, just applied to a different (and analogous) context.

Incorrect. (Lines 33-34) The Author brings up this method of experimentation to show how scientists ""explore whether a constant . . . is finely tuned,"" which is hardly a dramatic revelation. And the ""disasters"" noted call back to Line 9, but those disasters might not be anything dramatic—just something that prevented stars from forging carbon, for instance. So this answer misses the mark.

Incorrect. (Lines 33-35) While the Author does suggest that there's a common way to perform such an experiment, it doesn't fall into a ""common archetype."" Rather, it follows a carefully determined experimental process.

Incorrect. (Line 36) When you ""play [a] movie,"" you're not taking an active role in shaping that story. Rather, you're passively seeing what happens in the movie. This answer would have been better if the Author said they were producing or directing the movie.