Main Point Questions - - Question 29

For years scientists have been scanning the skies in the hope of finding life on other planets. But in spite of the ...

jayymoh September 17, 2014

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Someone please breakdown this question.

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Naz September 23, 2014

You will find an explanation for this question in the thread from 9/11/14. Just click on it and the response will appear.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

McFly January 14, 2017

argue C and D. While it is sufficient to say that the implication of the authors statement is that they will not find"it" the statement also uses evidence as the determining factor as to why they won't. As a result it seems equally justifiable that because they haven't found "it" they should cease to look. The implication, that they will not find it, seems to be clearly borne out in the answer enough to be reasonably assumed no? Would this not wholly satisfy the main point of the argument, rather than the partial?albeit more direct?correct answer?

Mehran January 15, 2017

@McFly remember that Main Point Questions are a subset of Must Be True questions.

So there are two requirements for the correct answer on a Main Point Question: (1) it must be true and (2) it is the main point.

The problem with (D) is that it doesn't satisfy the first requirement. The author does not say that continued search of extraterrestrial life would not be justified so (D) is not necessarily true.

The author's point here is that scientists searching for extraterrestrial life will not find it, i.e. "The dream of finding extraterrestrial life is destined to remain a dream, as science's experience up to this point should indicate."

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.