We are looking to find an answer choice that explains why researchers during the 80s favored the meteorite hypothesis. This hypothesis is summarized in the second paragraph, so we should look especially towards that part of the passage.
The second paragraph tells us that in the 80s a layer of iridium-rich clay was found dating to the period in which dinosaurs were killed, and so researchers hypothesized that the meteor changed the climate and thus killed the dinosaurs.
Answer choice (B) Relates to the theory that replaced the 1980s meteor theory- that of volcanism. The researchers in the 1980s suspected a meteor was the cause, not a volcano.
(C) does reflect what we saw in the second paragraph.
Naryan-ShukleMay 6, 2022
Hi @ScarlettY, let's take a look at this question.
The passage: What killed the dinosaurs? First we thought it was random geological things like earthquakes. But that didn't explain this layer of iridium around the Earth. So THEN people said "hey, maybe a meteor? Those things have iridium!
Then this article gets to its main point: both of those ideas are probably wrong; the dinosaurs were most likely killed by super volcanoes, which would explain the iridium AND a bunch of other stuff.
Ok, now to the question.
This is basically asking: "why did people think it was a meteor?" If we read and understood the passage well, the first answer that pops into our head is this idea of iridium. That's what the meteor theory helped explain.
Now let's go get that answer; something along the lines of "we thought it was a meteor because that explains the iridium."
(C): Pretty much exactly what we prephrased/anticipated. The reason we thought it was a meteor was because it explains the iridium.
(B): This is one of those questions that fails the "so what?" scrutiny. Let's pretend B is factual. Ok....so we thought volcanoes would release X amount of C02, but they actually released 2X. How does that affect....anything, really? Does that mean it was a meteor? That it wasn't a meteor? This doesn't push us to one cause of extinction over another.
Here's an example: I thought Emily wanted a cookie cause she likes chocolate, but in reality she probably wants chocolate ice-cream 'cause she also said she wanted something cold.
Q: what made you think Emily wanted a cookie?
(B): I underestimated how much ice-cream costs.
If you can see why this doesn't make sense, it's the same problem with (B) in the real question.
