Solved

Below Is a Source Followed by Passage(s) from Student Papers

question 15

Multiple Choice

Below is a source followed by passage(s) from student papers. If the student has summarized, directly quoted, or indirectly quoted the source correctly, select "Correct." If you believe the source is incorrectly summarized or plagiarized, select "Incorrect."
"In May, scientists in the Gulf of Mexico began tracking plumes of methane and oil droplets drifting up to 30 miles from the broken [BP oil] well, at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. One of those scientists was University of Georgia biogeochemist Mandy Joye, who has spent years studying hydrocarbon vents and brine seeps in the deep Gulf. She found a plume the size of Manhattan, and its methane levels were highest she had ever measured in the Gulf. As bacteria feast on spilled oil and methane, they deplete the water of oxygen; at one point Joy found oxygen levels dangerously low for life a water layer 600 feet thick, at depths where fish usually live. Since waters in the deep Gulf mix very slowly, she said, such depleted zones could persist for decades."
⎯ Bourne, Joel. "The Gulf of Oil: The Deep Dilemma."
Green . Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. 100-112. Print.
Student version: The 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from one of the BP Oil Company's wells was one of the most environmentally damaging spills in the history of oil drilling. Bourne says that, according to one University of Georgia scientist, huge columns of oil and methane in the Gulf have already led to depleted oxygen supplies in the water. As a result, vast areas once home to fish may be unable to support life for years to come. (110-111) .

Definitions:

Hypothesis

A proposed explanation for a phenomenon, made as a starting point for further investigation, which can be tested through research and experimentation.

Theory

A coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation.

Operational Definition

A definition that provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.

Helpful

Providing assistance or benefit to others; capable of improving a situation or condition.