5.11.1 Questions appendix, passage 16 refers to ‘toxicity testing’. Explain what this is.
5.11.2 Steven J. Gould, the famous Harvard biologist, writes in a piece called ‘The Median Isn’t the Message’ that he was diagnosed in July 1982 as suffering from abdominal mesothelioma, a rare and serious cancer, usually associated with exposure to asbestos. After surgery he decided to check the literature on this illness, and it was very clear: ‘Mesothelioma is incurable, with a median mortality of only eight months after discovery.’ After sitting stunned for some time, he began to think and he asked himself, ‘What does “median mortality of eight months” signify?’ What did Gould want to know?
5.11.3 Consider the following reasoning: Whenever there is a plan to divert part of the flow of some river to supply other areas with water, this rightly raises objections from those who will ‘lose’ the water. It is absurd to expect the ‘losers’ to stand idly by while a sizeable proportion of their water flows away so that others may benefit in some distant place. Fresh water is a natural resource in the same sense that crude oil and iron ore are natural resources. Does Saudi Arabia give away its crude oil? Does Russia give away its iron ore? Why should those who are threatened with losing part of their water supply be expected to view their natural resources any differently? If development in other areas is limited by lack of water, it should stay that way. (Adapted from the Law School Admission Test, December 1985, D 18) Is water like oil and iron ore? What are the implications of your answer?
5.11.4 What do you think it means to say that someone loves someone else?
5.11.5 How would you respond to Dawkins’ description of religious faith as ‘belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence’? (Questions appendix, passage 57)
5.11.6 Use the internet to find out what is normally meant when we speak of ‘oil reserves’. Cite your source(s).
5.11.7 For a really difficult last question, try to answer the case made by John McPeck in the Questions appendix, passage 55.