Q20

[andrewgong01]

I am having trouble with this question in getting it down between "C" and "E"

I eliminated the other choices for these reasons

A) Scope and trap fake comparison We never learned about a comparison between arid and non arid regions in terms of fracture zones. Also, these comparisons rarely seem correct in LR and RC

B) No reliable studies seem extreme but defer.

D) Unsupported because the passage only said that dowsers did which showed they can detect changes in variations in subsurface conditions . It said nothing about if the other professionals were able to do it . Seems like a trap answer

For "B" it is extreme to say no reliable studies. We don't know if there are reliable studies but the author does not commit to saying there are 0 reliable studies. If anything, the proponents from P3 probably would suggest there are studies out there. Perhaps the author considers the last study to be a reliable study since the last study (P4) is about finding a dry fracture zone and the author's stance of the last study is on line 47 ("corroborated").

For "C" it is true the passage never said they use different tools directly but my inference that it could be different is from Paragraph 1. In Paragraph 1 it talked about different dowsing tools such as forked sticks and metal rods (line 3). Then it talked about water dowsing through a forked tree branch . So this shows us two things 1) There are different tools to use in dowsing and 2) Water uses one type of them and since water and dry fractures seem different I inferred it probably is different tools. Moreover, we learn that the tools used to find water is meant to also measure a well's water flow rate (Line 9) and we are not finding a water well 's flow rate when finding a dry zone (unless we are suppose to find where the rate is 0).

For "E" what we know of P4's study is that is corroborated two claims. Namely, 1) Dowsers can detect electromagnetic field variations and 2) Dowsers can be more successful than geologists. Beyond that it doesn't seem we know much about the study or how it was "not typical", which requires us to know the usual type of study.

Between C and E i chose C since it felt like it had more support ; however, "E" is the credited response

[ohthatpatrick]

I see the noble stretch you were trying to make with (C), but we definitely have no line references we can point to that look like, "They switched tools."

For (E), we might in realtime have to get it from common sense.

Does it seem typical for a dowsing study to gather together the "most successful" dowsers, geologists, and hydrologists?

That's quite an undertaking.

What we previously know of dowsing studies comes from lines 35-40, with an emphasis on learning in line 40 that "Verifiably successful dowsers are not well represented in the typical study."

Meanwhile, "Verifiably successful dowsers" ('the most successful dowsers') WERE well represented in the dowsing study described in the final paragraph.