Human endeavour — Advanced

Score: 0 / 20

Level 3: Advanced

Evaluate, justify, synthesise, propose — combine ideas, judge claims and methods (senior secondary style).

1. Which statement best evaluates the claim: if it is peer-reviewed, it must be true and final?

   A)Partly true—retractions are rare, so acceptance usually settles the claim for goodB)Largely true—similar journal checklists mean major errors rarely survive reviewC)Too strong—review raises quality but cannot guarantee truth; flaws and corrections still occurD)True after acceptance—preprints stay provisional, but reviewed papers are no longer revisable

2. Why do ethical guidelines typically require informed consent and ethics approval for most human research?

   A)Mainly to shield institutions from legal liability if a participant is harmedB)To protect dignity, safety, and autonomy; harmful studies can wound people and erode trustC)So teachers may run routine class surveys without obtaining meaningful consentD)Because staying in the room after a verbal briefing counts as sufficient consent alone

3. A city must choose between funding a climate adaptation project and a basic physics lab. A values-based synthesis might:

   A)Prioritise the lower headline cost while downplaying maintenance burdens and residual riskB)Defer to one headline metric such as jobs created so the trade-off appears fully objectiveC)Fund whichever proposal was logged first to shorten debate and avoid prolonged comparisonD)Balance urgency, risk, equity, and long-term payoff when no single formula fits every city

4. How should someone respond responsibly to a viral post claiming a miracle cure?

   A)Trace claims to sources, methods, and conflicts of interest, then share calm corrections with evidenceB)Match the post’s emotional tone with an opposing anecdote so the thread looks balancedC)Report the post for removal and avoid adding a public correction that cites better evidenceD)Treat named clinics and technical jargon as sufficient proof if the story feels convincing

5. Using only social-media likes as evidence that a health treatment works is:

   A)Reasonably strong once engagement crosses a high threshold such as tens of thousands of likesB)Preferable to randomised trials when judging rare side effects in real-world settingsC)Weak, because popularity is not a controlled outcome and selection bias dominates the signalD)Sound when trusted influencers promote the treatment to audiences who already support it

6. Why is anonymised peer review common, even though it has trade-offs?

   A)It delivers perfect objectivity in every case and removes reviewer bias altogetherB)It can reduce personal retaliation and steer critique toward the work, not the authorC)It ends meaningful accountability because editors cannot investigate disputes or misconductD)It removes the need to declare competing interests because anonymity hides them from journals

7. How do funding source and method quality interact when you read a study?

   A)Weigh disclosed ties with design, blinding, sample, outcomes, and replication—not either-or thinkingB)Treat industry funding as automatically invalidating the methods, analyses, and conclusionsC)Treat public funding as guaranteeing causal proof without further scrutiny of methodsD)Rely on the abstract alone if conflicts of interest are disclosed in a footnote

8. Which response best critiques the idea that science is finished once a textbook chapter is written?

   A)Mostly accurate—textbooks summarise settled core ideas that rarely need major revisionB)Generally accurate because new editions seldom change once the first print run shipsC)Accurate for scientific laws, which by definition cannot be refined by later evidenceD)Misleading—understanding stays provisional and can shift as evidence and models improve

9. A team withholds data that contradicts their headline conclusion. This mainly breaches expectations of:

   A)Figure layout, font choices, and citation-style conventions expected in journalsB)Honesty and transparency in reporting methods, data, and conclusionsC)Patent filing timelines alone, with no crossover into expectations of honest reportingD)Platform community guidelines alone, rather than field norms about sharing evidence

10. Which classroom approach best supports media literacy alongside science content?

    A)Exclude news and current-affairs sources from the curriculum to limit controversyB)Treat any .org website as trustworthy authority without corroborating claims or methodsC)Practice tracing claims to primary sources and comparing independent expert reviewsD)Run competitions that reward the fastest headline shares without verification steps

11. Which statement best evaluates the claim that government-funded research is automatically unbiased?

    A)Mostly true—taxpayer support removes financial conflicts that could shape conclusionsB)Reliable when the agency brand is strong, even if the study design remains weakC)Too simple—political pressure, design limits, and reporting choices still warrant scrutinyD)Mostly true because policymakers cannot shape funded research questions or messaging

12. After a severe cyclone season, more funding shifts to cyclone forecasting and coastal risk studies. This best illustrates:

    A)Research topics never change once a national science agency publishes its first planB)Societal harm and policy attention can redirect which questions attract urgent investmentC)Severe weather automatically cancels basic research in unrelated fields everywhereD)Media headlines alone set lab budgets with no role for institutions, ethics, or evidence

13. How can transparency and competence support trust in scientific institutions?

    A)Trust tends to rise when bodies are capable, candid about limits, and accountable for errorsB)Public trust in science is largely fixed early and barely shifts as institutions behaveC)Openness usually backfires because transparency increases suspicion without building clarityD)Competence requires projecting total certainty and avoiding public correction of past guidance

14. Which statement best critiques the claim that peer review means every claim in a paper was repeated in another lab?

    A)True by definition—reviewers replicate each experiment before recommending acceptanceB)True once a paper is accepted, because replication is bundled into the editorial processC)True because journals universally require complete raw data and code before review beginsD)Overstated—review checks a manuscript; replication across labs is a separate step

15. Which focus best fits teaching ethics of AI tools in a science classroom?

    A)Institute a blanket ban on every AI tool without discussing trade-offs or literacy goalsB)Discuss bias, privacy, verification, and appropriate use alongside primary sourcesC)Treat polished AI outputs as established facts if the wording sounds technical enoughD)Set aside plagiarism, attribution, and integrity expectations for AI-assisted drafts

16. Which statement best evaluates the claim that markets alone will optimally fix climate harm without policy?

    A)Universally accurate for pricing goods and services in every modern economyB)Reliable because market prices already capture the full social cost of pollutionC)Contested—unpriced harm and coordination failures often invite regulatory and pricing toolsD)False because economists uniformly reject the idea that externalities exist in practice

17. Which statement best supports treating team diversity in research as more than a fairness issue?

    A)Diverse teams can reduce blind spots and strengthen problem framing and innovationB)Diversity reliably lowers technical rigour and drags down average publication qualityC)Diversity mainly serves public-relations optics, not how questions are framed or testedD)Science outcomes depend only on isolated individual effort, so team mix cannot matter

18. How can the precautionary principle align with evidence standards in policy?

    A)Wait for absolute proof and zero expert disagreement before taking any protective stepB)Ignore harm from delay while insisting on impossible certainty before precautionary actionC)Use proportionate caution when harm is serious and knowledge is incomplete, while research continuesD)Block every novel technology regardless of safeguards, benefits, or local context

19. Which statement best critiques the view that if science cannot be 100% certain, all claims are equally likely?

    A)Reasonable—if certainty is imperfect, no empirical claim can be stronger than any otherB)False equivalence—degrees of evidence and consilience across studies still matterC)Sound whenever a field has not yet reached full certainty about every open detailD)Logical because all models are imperfect, so none should guide practical choices

20. Which journal practice best targets publication bias toward positive or striking results?

    A)Reject null findings automatically so published literature stays more exciting to scanB)Hide negative studies from indexes so readers mainly encounter supportive headline resultsC)Charge higher article fees when primary outcomes are null or run counter to expectationsD)Use registered reports that pre-commit to publishing sound methods-led studies regardless of sign

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