A student notes question with a two-part goal tests whether you can use facts to do both jobs. Read the goal and name what the answer needs to do, including each part it asks for. For studies, separate results from interpretations: what researchers found versus what they thought it meant. Cross out sentences that miss the goal, then check every remaining claim against the notes. Accurate details don't save a sentence that misses the goal or adds a claim the notes don't support.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at Lian’s first three bullets for the result and the interpretation. Which is a measurement, and which is a claim about the screens’ purpose?
- Hint 2
Compare the conditions in the two experiments. Track what Okafor found in an empty hall and with a simulated audience.
- Hint 3
In the final bullet, check how far Okafor’s argument goes. What does can let you say, and what does it leave open?
Step-by-step
Separate the result from its meaning
Step 1Name what the goal needs
The goal separates Lian’s interpretation from Lian’s experimental result. What does qualifies ask us to do? It means adding a limit to a claim, so we need a sentence that narrows her interpretation without denying her measured result.
- Step 2
Compare matching conditions
Do the experiments disagree under the same conditions? Okafor found that the screens had no effect in an empty hall, matching Lian’s result. With a simulated audience, they improved speech clarity near the rear of the hall, so the added effect appears under different conditions. Every choice reports those findings, so we need to check their endings.
- Step 3
Limit what the findings prove
Lian’s phrase probably decorative rather than acoustic says what she thought the test meant, not what she measured. Does the added effect settle that purpose? An acoustic effect doesn't prove an intended purpose or rule out decoration. Designed specifically adds an intention the notes don't give, while interpretation was mistaken turns a limit on her claim into a flat rejection. Decorative in empty halls also treats no measured acoustic effect as proof of decoration, which neither experiment tested.
- Step 4
Match the limited conclusion
How far does Okafor take his finding? He argues that an acoustic function can depend on conditions created by a hall’s occupancy, so Lian’s empty-hall result leaves an acoustic role under other conditions open. The ending does not exclude a condition-dependent acoustic function makes that limited claim without changing her result. Choice A.