Directions : Read the given passage and answer the questions based on that…
2022
Directions : Read the given passage and answer the questions based on that
What it means to "explain" something in science often comes down to the application of mathematics. Some thinkers hold that mathematics is a kind of language--a systematic contrivance of signs, the criteria for the authority of which are internal coherence, elegance, and depth. The application of such a highly artificial system to the physical world, they claim, results in the creation of a kind of statement about the world. Accordingly, what matters in the sciences is finding a mathematical concept that attempts, as other language does, to describe the functioning of some aspect of the world. At the center of the issue of scientific knowledge can thus be found questions about the relationship between language and what it refers to. A discussion about the role played by language in the pursuit of knowledge has been going on among linguists for several decades. The debate is on whether language corresponds in some essential way to objects and behaviors, making knowledge a solid and reliable commodity; or, on the other hand, whether the relationship between language and things is purely a matter of agreed-upon conventions, making knowledge tenuous, relative, and inexact.
Lately the latter theory has been gaining wider acceptance. According to linguists who support this theory, the way language is used varies depending upon changes in accepted practices and theories among those who work in particular discipline. These linguists argue that, in the pursuit of knowledge, a statement is true only when there are no promising alternatives that might lead one to question it. Certainly, this characterization would seem to be applicable to the sciences. In science, a mathematical statement may be taken to account for every aspect of a phenomenon it is applied to, but some would argue, there is nothing inherent in mathematical language. Under this view, acceptance of a mathematical statement by the scientific community--by virtue of the statement's predictive power or methodological efficiency--transforms what is basically an analogy or metaphor into an explanation of the physical process in question, to be held as true until another, more compelling analogy takes its place.
Why mathematics is considered as a language by some experts?
- A.
Similar to a language, mathematics uses syntax and sign within a discipline
- B.
Mathematics can accurately describe real-world problems and abstract concepts.
- C.
Mathematics is widely used subject, universal to everyone.
- D.
Only (a) and (b)
- E.
All of these
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
A reading-comprehension answer must rest only on what the passage actually asserts. A statement counts as a stated reason only when the text supports it; a claim that sounds plausible but is absent from the passage is not a valid answer here. So each candidate reason must be checked against the text, and only those the author actually advances may be kept.
Application
The passage offers two distinct grounds for treating mathematics as a kind of language:
It describes mathematics as "a systematic contrivance of signs" judged by "internal coherence, elegance, and depth" — that is, it has its own signs and ordering rules within the discipline. This matches the ground that mathematics uses syntax and signs within a discipline.
It says a mathematical concept "attempts, as other language does, to describe the functioning of some aspect of the world" — that is, like language it is used to describe phenomena in the world. This matches the ground that mathematics is used to describe real-world phenomena.
Contrast
The idea that mathematics is "a widely used subject, universal to everyone" appears nowhere in the passage: the text is about the relationship between mathematical language and what it refers to, not about how popular or accessible the subject is. With no textual basis, it cannot be a stated reason.
Treating every listed statement as a reason would also require that universality claim to be supported — but it is not, so such a sweeping selection pulls in a ground the passage never gives.
The two textual grounds — the signs-and-ordering one and the describes-the-world one — are exactly the reasons the author advances, and no third reason survives the check against the passage.