# Words about evidence

Corroborate, undermine, anomalous, plausible — how writers signal how much to trust a claim.

10 question(s), with answers and distractor explanations.

### The connection between the two findings was ____; a single contradictory result would have dissolved it.

*core · science*

0. tenuous  **← answer**
1. robust
2. reciprocal
3. empirical

**Why it fits:** The second clause says one contradiction would destroy the connection, so the connection must be weak and barely holding.

**Why the others fail:**
- *robust* — "Robust" means strong enough to survive challenge — the opposite of what the second clause describes.
- *reciprocal* — "Reciprocal" describes a two-way relationship, which says nothing about how fragile it is.
- *empirical* — "Empirical" means based on observation. It might be true of the finding, but it does not describe fragility.

### The second team repeated the experiment in order to ____ the original result before publication.

*foundation · science*

0. corroborate  **← answer**
1. contest
2. circumvent
3. extrapolate

**Why it fits:** Repeating an experiment before publishing is done to confirm the finding with independent evidence.

**Why the others fail:**
- *contest* — "Contest" means to dispute. Nothing suggests the second team set out to disagree.
- *circumvent* — "Circumvent" means to get around something, which does not apply to a result.
- *extrapolate* — "Extrapolate" means to extend a finding beyond the observed range — that is a different activity from confirming it.

### Her field notes were ____: every specimen was logged with its location, the weather, and the hour it was found.

*foundation · science*

0. meticulous  **← answer**
1. perfunctory
2. anecdotal
3. ambivalent

**Why it fits:** The colon introduces evidence of extreme care and completeness, which is what "meticulous" names.

**Why the others fail:**
- *perfunctory* — "Perfunctory" means done with minimum effort — the opposite of the detail listed.
- *anecdotal* — "Anecdotal" means based on informal stories rather than systematic record, which contradicts the careful logging.
- *ambivalent* — "Ambivalent" describes mixed feelings, not a quality of notes.

### Neither explanation has been confirmed, but both remain ____ given what is currently known.

*foundation · science*

0. plausible  **← answer**
1. verified
2. untenable
3. redundant

**Why it fits:** Unconfirmed but still worth entertaining is exactly the space "plausible" occupies.

**Why the others fail:**
- *verified* — "Verified" means confirmed, which the first clause explicitly denies.
- *untenable* — "Untenable" means impossible to defend — but the sentence says both survive.
- *redundant* — "Redundant" means unnecessarily repetitive, which does not follow from being unconfirmed.

### Researchers were careful not to ____ the decline to a single cause, since three pressures acted at once.

*stretch · science*

0. attribute  **← answer**
1. ascribe wholly
2. quantify
3. anticipate

**Why it fits:** To attribute is to assign a cause, and the sentence warns against assigning the decline to one cause when three were acting.

**Why the others fail:**
- *ascribe wholly* — "Ascribe wholly" is close in meaning but reads awkwardly here; the standard verb for assigning a cause is "attribute", and the sentence already supplies "to a single cause".
- *quantify* — "Quantify" means to measure, which is not what the caution is about.
- *anticipate* — "Anticipate" means to expect in advance, and the decline has already happened.

### Once the predator was removed, the smaller fish began to ____, doubling in number each season.

*foundation · science*

0. proliferate  **← answer**
1. diminish
2. stagnate
3. migrate

**Why it fits:** Doubling each season is rapid increase in number, which is what proliferate means.

**Why the others fail:**
- *diminish* — "Diminish" means to decrease, contradicting the doubling.
- *stagnate* — "Stagnate" means to stop changing, which the numbers clearly do not.
- *migrate* — "Migrate" means to move location, and the sentence describes quantity, not movement.

### The material is now so ____ that it turns up in soil samples from the deep ocean to the high Arctic.

*foundation · science*

0. ubiquitous  **← answer**
1. volatile
2. inert
3. scarce

**Why it fits:** Appearing everywhere from the deep ocean to the Arctic is the definition of being present everywhere.

**Why the others fail:**
- *volatile* — "Volatile" means unstable or evaporating easily, which is about behaviour, not distribution.
- *inert* — "Inert" means chemically unreactive — again a property, not a matter of where it is found.
- *scarce* — "Scarce" means rare, contradicting the range described.

### The technique is not wrong, merely ____: faster methods have replaced it entirely in modern labs.

*core · science*

0. obsolete  **← answer**
1. erroneous
2. nascent
3. contentious

**Why it fits:** "Not wrong, merely —" plus "replaced entirely" points to something superseded rather than mistaken.

**Why the others fail:**
- *erroneous* — "Erroneous" means wrong, which the sentence explicitly rules out.
- *nascent* — "Nascent" means just emerging, the opposite of superseded.
- *contentious* — "Contentious" means disputed, but nothing suggests disagreement.

### Given the rate of erosion, the collapse of the arch was ____; the only question was when.

*foundation · science*

0. inevitable  **← answer**
1. improbable
2. reversible
3. imperceptible

**Why it fits:** "The only question was when" means the event itself is certain, only its timing is open.

**Why the others fail:**
- *improbable* — "Improbable" means unlikely, contradicting the certainty.
- *reversible* — "Reversible" means able to be undone, which the sentence does not address.
- *imperceptible* — "Imperceptible" means too small to notice, but a collapse is the opposite.

### One reading was ____ — nearly triple the others — so the team checked the instrument before accepting it.

*core · science*

0. anomalous  **← answer**
1. representative
2. negligible
3. consistent

**Why it fits:** A value that departs sharply from the rest is an anomaly, which is why they suspected the instrument.

**Why the others fail:**
- *representative* — "Representative" would mean typical of the set, but this reading is nearly triple the others.
- *negligible* — "Negligible" means too small to matter, whereas this one is unusually large.
- *consistent* — "Consistent" means in agreement with the others, which it plainly is not.

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