SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: Many astronomers believe that the best place to search for life beyond Earth is on planets orbiting within the habitable zones of their stars, where temperatures allow liquid water to exist on the surface. Planets outside these zones, they argue, are too hot or too cold to support life.
Text 2: Some of the most promising places to look for life in our own solar system lie far outside the Sun's habitable zone. Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are both thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts, kept warm by heat generated as the giant planets' gravity flexes the moons' interiors.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the astronomers' argument in Text 1?
By noting that liquid water may exist beneath the surface of bodies outside a habitable zone
By agreeing that only planets within habitable zones are worth studying
By arguing that life cannot exist without direct sunlight
By claiming that Europa and Enceladus actually lie within the Sun's habitable zone
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Text 1 assumes that bodies outside habitable zones are too cold for liquid water. Text 2 points to moons far from the Sun that likely have liquid oceans under their ice, warmed by gravity rather than sunlight. The author would challenge Text 1 on exactly that point, as choice A says.
Choice D contradicts Text 2, which says these moons lie "far outside" the habitable zone.
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