PrepTest 154

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Paradox

Stimulus Summary:
Global warming is going to melt the ice caps but also grow the ice caps? According to some models, an increase of 2 degrees C means a warm enough ocean to melt the polar ice caps considerably, but the same models also predict an increase in the volume of the polar ice caps. What's going on here?! Are polar bears in trouble or not?!

Answer Anticipation:
We're looking for some additional piece of information to tell us why warmer seas might result in polar ice cap growth, rather than shrinkage. We can't necessarily anticipate exactly what it'll be, but it's probably tied directly to temperature, since that's the only thing we know specifically about this model: 2 degrees Celsius of warming = warmer seawater.

Answer Explanation:
Weird as it is, this seems to resolve the paradox. More evaporation means more snow on the ice caps, then melting and becoming polar ice, leading to a net increase in polar ice (Don't count on this happening in the real world, though!).

Key Takeaway:
Resolving a paradox requires making the unexpected expected. The additional information you choose as your correct answer choice needs to make two pieces of information that originally seemed to contradict one another work together nicely. As in many of your LR questions, causality plays a role here: if one side of the paradox can be made to cause the other, now they're working together instead of at odds.

Incorrect. This won't work as it just stabilizes the size of the ice caps. We're looking for something that could cause them to grow as seas warm.

Incorrect. This does the opposite of what we're looking for. It gives a rationale for why the ice caps would shrink faster as the ocean warms!

Incorrect. If the temperature needed to freeze seawater lowers, and the temperature of the ocean increases, it'll be even harder for sea ice to freeze. That would tend to mean smaller ice caps.

Incorrect. A few more cloudy days across the planet wouldn't necessarily affect the size of the ice caps, at least not in the positive way we're thinking. The poles are probably always going to be home to the coldest temperatures on earth, even if the variation between them and the rest of the planet is a little less over time. This doesn't give us a reasonable explanation for ice cap growth when seas warm up.