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The Power of Critical Thinking, Third Canadian Edition: Chapter 9

Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the “Submit my answers” button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:


a) True
b) False

Question 2:


a) True
b) False

Question 3:


a) True
b) False

Question 4:


a) True
b) False

Question 5:


a) True
b) False

Question 6:


a) True
b) False

Question 7:


a) True
b) False

Question 8:


a) True
b) False

Question 9:


a) True
b) False

Question 10:


a) True
b) False

Question 11:


a) True
b) False

Question 12:


a) verified independently of the phenomenon it's supposed to explain
b) understood without explanation
c) verified without several tests
d) advocated

Question 13:


a) refers to the fewest physical entities
b) makes the fewest assumptions
c) is untestable
d) is easiest to understand

Question 14:


a) extremely useful
b) useful only in science
c) worthless
d) uncommon

Question 15:


a) false
b) essential tools
c) optional
d) never explicit

Question 16:


a) is the only theory we need to consider
b) meets the minimum requirement of consistency
c) is true
d) is false

Question 17:


a) inductively weak
b) inconclusive
c) valid
d) inductively strong

Question 18:


a) fruitful
b) conservative
c) testable
d) superfluous

Question 19:


a) testable
b) simple
c) conservative
d) fruitful

Question 20:


a) never goes beyond the given evidence
b) provides necessary conclusions
c) reasons from a fact about a state of affairs to an explanation of that fact
d) can conclusively separate strong conclusions from weak conclusions.

Question 21:


a) when alternative or competing theories have been considered
b) when the truth of the candidate best explanation has been confirmed
c) when inconsistencies in the theory have been acknowledged
d) when a conclusion has been adequately proven or disproven

Question 22:


a) is testable and successfully predicts known phenomena
b) is not necessarily testable, but sometimes predicts previously unknown phenomena
c) is testable and successfully predicts previously unknown phenomena
d) is not testable and cannot predict previously unknown phenomena

Question 23:


a) a theory that fails the criterion of conservatism
b) an unfruitful theory
c) an ad hoc thesis
d) a strong theory