ACT Preparation / Unit 21 ACT 2022 review, 2 to 3 minutes
A Conflicting Viewpoints Passage
The idea
Evaluating explanations rests on a few ideas. Science has no single method, but it always tests tentative explanations against evidence. A theory is a tested, confirmed explanation, and a model is a simplified, useful representation. Inductive reasoning builds generalizations from observations; deductive reasoning derives predictions from principles. Evidence supports a claim when it matches a prediction the alternatives would not make, and weakens it when it contradicts one. Association is not cause without a controlled experiment. Conflicting viewpoints share some ground and differ on a core point, and new evidence decides between them only if they predicted it differently.
In practice
Worked passage, invented for the course: "Hikers find that the north side of a ridge keeps its snow three weeks longer than the south side. Student 1 argues that the north side receives less direct sunlight, so its snow melts more slowly. Student 2 argues that the north side has thicker tree cover, which shades the ground and slows melting." Question one, shared ground: both accept that north-side snow lasts longer and that less melting energy reaches it. Question two, the core difference: student 1 points to the slope's angle to the sun, student 2 to the trees. Question three, a new finding: a bare, treeless clearing on the north side also keeps its snow three weeks longer. Student 1's view predicts this, because the clearing still faces away from the sun; student 2's view does not, because there are no trees there. The finding favors student 1. Question four, a finding that decides nothing: the north side's air is colder at night. Both views can accept it, so it favors neither.
Where people slip
Three habits carry forward. Summarize each viewpoint in its own terms before comparing. Find the shared ground first, then the core disagreement. And let a finding decide only when the views predicted it differently. The next unit fills in the background science that passages assume.
Your place on the trail
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