How to Compare Two Explanations Without Mixing Their Assumptions

Start with the sentence you want answered. “I do not understand the worksheet” is a real concern, but it leaves a comparison almost unlimited. “Does complete mean every box has an answer, or that the answers have also been checked?” gives the two explanations something precise to address.

Write the question above the extracts rather than keeping it only in your head. As you read, a detailed explanation can pull your attention towards its own topic. Returning to the written question helps you notice that an attractive paragraph may answer a nearby question while leaving your present uncertainty untouched.

Suppose one explanation says how many cards a group receives and another says how many cards each learner receives. Both discuss cards. Both may use the same original record. Nevertheless, “How many are there altogether?” and “How many does each person get?” have different requested quantities. Comparing only the final numbers would hide that difference.

A useful question includes enough context to distinguish the intended task. “What counts as finished for today’s checking stage?” is more precise than “What counts as finished?” “How many cards does each of these three learners receive from this equal share?” is more precise than “How many cards?” The added words should identify the decision, not make it sound sophisticated.

You may discover that you have two questions. Keep them separate. One concerns whether a calculation is correct; another concerns whether the calculation answers the assignment. A correct total can still be the wrong requested quantity. Marking the entire explanation simply right or wrong would lose the part that remains useful.

Choose a small enough comparison to finish. Two paragraphs about one claim usually provide a clearer starting point than two entire courses. If either paragraph relies on an earlier definition, include that definition too. The boundary follows what you need to interpret the claim, not an arbitrary number of sentences.

When only one resource addresses your question, the immediate task is resource selection. How to Check Whether a Learning Resource Answers Your Question helps you examine that fit. Once two resources address overlapping material, you can compare their explanations without assuming they have identical jobs.

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Give the explanations simple labels, such as A and B, and keep those labels throughout your notes. Record the relevant wording, its location and the example it refers to. If you shorten an extract, preserve any words that limit the claim: each, altogether, during, after, only, may, must, approximately and exactly can change its meaning.

Consider these invented statements: “Each learner receives four cards” and “The group receives twelve cards.” A compressed note saying “cards: four versus twelve” creates a conflict that the full statements do not contain. The loss occurs during note taking, before any reasoning about the evidence begins.

Separate what the explanation states from what you supplied yourself. If A says “divide equally among the learners,” but never identifies the number of learners, do not quietly insert three because an earlier example used three. Write “number of learners not supplied in this extract.” A visible gap can be investigated; an invisible assumption can travel into later working.

Keep the writer’s conclusion apart from your response to it. You might record, “A says the task is complete; I think A means every prompt has a response.” The second clause is your interpretation until the explanation or its instructions establish that meaning. This distinction is especially useful when ordinary words carry local classroom meanings.

Purdue OWL’s synthesis guide advises readers to identify relationships without forcing connections between sources.

For this learning task, let an honest difference remain visible while you examine it. Do not rewrite A in B’s vocabulary merely to make the pair match. If A uses “attempted” and B uses “checked,” preserve both words until you know whether the distinction matters.

A practical note can be short: the question, A’s relevant statement, B’s relevant statement and the original task record. You do not need to copy pages of surrounding material. Include enough context to preserve the meaning, and return for more only when a missing condition affects the decision. If the source cannot be inspected again, record that limitation before deciding how much confidence the comparison deserves.

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An explanation often depends on something outside its final sentence: a passage, diagram, assignment instruction, data table or earlier example. Place that material beside the pair. Agreement about the topic does not establish agreement about the record being explained.

For a numerical task, compare the supplied quantities and their labels. Are both accounts using the same number of people? Are they counting all the objects or only the usable ones? Did one account include an extra item stated below the diagram? For a reading task, check whether both explanations concern the same passage and the same question within it.

A shared record should be specific enough that another reader can inspect your comparison. “Both use the worksheet” is weak if the worksheet has three examples. “Both use the row showing twelve cards shared equally among three learners” identifies the relevant evidence. You can now check the arithmetic and the meaning of the result separately.

Versions matter when the supplied material has changed. Imagine a printed task saying “three groups” while a corrected classroom slide says “four groups.” Two different totals may reflect that correction. Record which version each explanation addresses before accusing either of contradicting the other. Then ask which version applies to the work you must complete.

The absence of a difference in your notes is not proof that the records match. You might simply have omitted the identifying detail. If the screenshot cuts off the question number or a video begins after the original setup, say so. The correct next step can be to retrieve the missing opening rather than interpret the visible answer more aggressively.

Checking the record also protects useful partial work. Suppose A correctly explains a twelve-card task while B correctly explains a fifteen-card task. Their calculations might both be useful examples, but neither can be substituted for the other without changing the starting quantities. Keep the two records distinct and choose the one that matches your current question.

When the original task itself is unclear, use How to Clarify New Expectations Before Changing Your Approach. Clarifying what is required can settle which comparison you actually need to make.

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A comparison does not have to end with one explanation winning. It can produce four useful results. These labels describe the relationship between the particular claims you inspected; they are not permanent ratings of a teacher, book or website.

These outcomes can overlap in ordinary language. Accounts with different scopes may be compatible once that difference is explained. In your notes, choose the most informative label. “Different scope: whole group versus individual learner” tells you more than “both right.” It shows why the numbers differ and what you must preserve when using them.

Similarly, identifying genuine disagreement does not always establish which explanation is wrong. A complete numerical record may let you resolve the conflict directly. A missing original record may leave you able to identify incompatible claims without deciding between them. Keep the relationship decision separate from the correctness decision.

UNC’s comparison guide suggests examining ideas through their claims, applications, scope and evidence.

Use those features where they affect the learning decision. You do not need an elaborate table for a simple change from centimetres to metres. You do need to preserve the unit and perform the conversion correctly. The size of your notes should follow the difficulty of the comparison.

Avoid an automatic compromise. If the same box contains either seventeen or eighteen counters, writing seventeen and a half does not reconcile the explanations. It creates a third claim that neither account supports. Equally, choosing the longer explanation because it sounds more thorough bypasses the underlying evidence.

End the initial comparison with a sentence that names the reason: “These accounts concern different completion stages,” or “These totals conflict despite using the same counts.” That sentence will guide the next check more effectively than a broad reaction such as “This is confusing.”

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Here is the complete record for a fictional learning task. The activity has six short prompts. Stage One is called response complete: every prompt has a written response. Stage Two is called checking complete: the learner has checked every response against the supplied answer notes and corrected any identified error. The record shows six responses written, four checked and two still unchecked.

Explanation A reads: “The worksheet is response complete because all six prompts have written responses. This says that the response stage is finished. It does not say that the responses are correct or that checking is finished.”

Explanation B reads: “The worksheet is not checking complete because only four of the six responses have been checked. Two responses still need checking. This does not mean that those two prompts are unanswered.”

The apparent disagreement disappears when the full labels stay attached. A and B describe different stages using definitions explicitly supplied in the record. A’s conclusion is supported by six written responses out of six prompts. B’s conclusion is supported by four checked responses out of six responses.

An unhelpful combined note would say, “The worksheet is complete but not complete.” Another would say, “Both explanations think the work is half finished.” Neither preserves the actual counts or criteria. The second also invents an overall proportion for a task whose two stages need not take equal effort.

A useful comparison reads: “Response completion has been reached; checking completion has not. The remaining checking task concerns two existing responses.” This is specific enough to guide action. The learner should inspect those two responses, rather than write two new answers or redo all six without a reason.

Notice what the record cannot establish. It does not tell us whether the four checked responses were originally correct, whether any corrections were sound, or whether the learner can answer similar questions independently. Those would require different evidence. Completion criteria describe the stated activity; they do not automatically measure understanding.

If a real assignment uses the word complete without defining it, do not import these invented stage names into that classroom. Ask what completion includes there. You can use the example to notice a possible distinction while leaving the actual requirement to the relevant instructions or teacher.

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The next original record describes two packets, each containing six plain cards. Both packets are opened. All twelve cards are shared equally among three learners, with no cards held back. The question printed above the record is: “How many cards does each learner receive?”

Explanation A reads: “Two packets containing six cards each give twelve cards altogether. This is the number available to the group before sharing.”

Explanation B reads: “The twelve available cards are shared equally among three learners. Twelve divided by three is four, so each learner receives four cards.”

Both explanations use the same record. Their quantities differ: A reports a group total; B reports an individual share. They can be joined into a valid sequence, provided the labels remain visible: two packets × six cards per packet = twelve cards; twelve cards ÷ three learners = four cards per learner.

The classification is different scope with compatible conclusions. A is not an incorrect explanation merely because twelve is not the final answer to the printed question. It correctly supplies an intermediate quantity. It would become an incorrect answer to that question if someone relabelled twelve as cards per learner.

You can check the complete account backwards. Three learners receiving four cards each account for twelve cards, matching the two packets of six. This check depends on the stated equal sharing and absence of held-back cards. If either condition changes, the original calculation needs to be reconsidered.

Do not average twelve and four, or copy whichever number appears last in your notes. Attach a noun to each number while comparing: packets, cards, learners, cards per learner. Those labels expose many accidental substitutions without requiring complicated mathematics.

If one worked explanation still contains a step you cannot justify, How to Study a Worked Example Without Copying It develops that separate task. Here, the comparison has already established how the two claims relate.

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Different time windows can produce different answers even when the event is the same. Consider this original classroom record: at 3:00 pm a tray contains eight cards. At 3:10 pm someone adds four cards. At 3:20 pm a learner removes three cards. No other changes occur before 3:30 pm.

Explanation A reads: “Immediately after the addition at 3:10 pm, the tray contains twelve cards: the original eight plus the four added cards.”

Explanation B reads: “At 3:30 pm, the tray contains nine cards: twelve after the addition, then three removed at 3:20 pm.”

The counts differ, but the explanations do not disagree about the stated record. A concerns the state immediately after the addition. B concerns a later state after another event. The relationship is different scope in time. A valid combined account retains both timestamps and explains the change between them.

A note saying “A counts twelve; B counts nine; the sources disagree” removes the feature that explains the difference. A note saying “There are usually about ten cards” is worse: it invents a typical count from two specific states. Those two selected counts do not establish that ten is a usual amount or a correctly calculated average for the whole period.

Counting rules require the same care. Imagine a second tray with five blue cards and three yellow cards at one moment. “There are five blue cards” and “There are eight cards altogether” count different sets. Both can be true. If an explanation says “five cards altogether,” it has changed the claim and must be checked against all eight cards.

In your own material, ask what enters the count and what stays outside it. Does “completed questions” include corrected attempts? Does a list count repeated words once or on every appearance? Does “this week” mean the school week or the most recent seven days? You need the rule that the actual task uses, not whichever rule makes the two numbers agree.

When a time or counting rule is missing, preserve the uncertainty. “The two counts might refer to different moments” is a possible explanation, not an established reconciliation. The next step is to locate the timestamp or rule. A plausible story becomes a sound comparison only when the material supports it.

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Read this complete original passage: “Mina reached the north gate carrying a large cardboard model. A notice on the gate said it was locked while its hinges were being repaired. Mina walked around to the east gate, which stood open. She entered there, keeping the model upright.”

The question is: “Why did Mina enter through the east gate?” Two fictional explanations address it.

Explanation A reads: “Mina could not enter through the north gate because it was locked for repairs, so she needed another entrance.”

Explanation B reads: “The east gate was open, so it provided an available entrance when the north gate was locked.”

These explanations are compatible. A emphasises the obstacle at the original entrance. B identifies why the alternative was available. Both use details that appear in the passage, and neither requires an invented event. Together, they support a concise answer: Mina used the east gate because the north gate was locked for repairs and the east gate was open.

That combined answer retains the evidence from each account. It does not claim that Mina chose the east gate because it was closer, quieter, safer or wider. The passage gives no comparison of distance, noise, safety or width. The fact that Mina carried a large model might tempt a reader to invent a wider-gate explanation, but the text does not support it.

Suppose a learner writes, “A focuses on the problem and B focuses on the available solution.” That is a useful relationship statement because it identifies the contribution of each explanation. “B is better because it mentions east” says much less. A directly explains the reason an alternative was needed, even without repeating the chosen gate’s name.

Do not require every compatible pair to become one longer answer. The task may already be adequately answered by a concise statement using the decisive evidence. Comparison helps you understand the relationship; it does not oblige you to paste every sentence into your final response. Preserve relevant reasoning while following the actual question and any stated answer requirements.

If another explanation adds an unsupported motive, identify that addition separately. You can retain its accurate sentence about the locked gate while withholding the invented motive. The unit of judgment is the particular claim and its support, not an all-or-nothing verdict on an entire paragraph.

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Now inspect a case in which matching the conditions does not make the explanations agree. The complete original record says: three small boxes each contain five counters. Two further counters lie loose beside the boxes. All three boxes are full, all counters are counted once, and no other counters are present. The question asks for the total number of counters.

Explanation A reads: “The three boxes contain fifteen counters altogether. Adding the two loose counters gives seventeen counters in total.”

Explanation B reads: “The three boxes contain fifteen counters altogether. Adding the two loose counters gives eighteen counters in total.”

Both use the same record, question, units and counting rule. They agree that the boxes contain fifteen counters. They disagree on the result of adding two. This is a genuine contradiction within the supplied explanation pair, not a difference between total and share or between earlier and later states.

The record is sufficient to resolve this particular conflict. Five plus five plus five equals fifteen; fifteen plus two equals seventeen. A’s total is supported. B’s final addition is incorrect. You do not need to invent an extra counter to rescue B, and you should not silently change the loose count from two to three.

Preserve the location of the error. Saying “B’s explanation is all wrong” overlooks its correct boxed subtotal. The repair is narrower: retain fifteen as the number inside the boxes, correct the final addition and recheck that the result answers the total question. Identifying the first unsupported step tells the learner where attention is needed.

Nor should you decide that the correct result is somewhere between seventeen and eighteen. A compromise would not follow the record. Some comparisons end with a clear correction when decisive evidence is available. Treating every disagreement as a matter of perspective would make the available evidence useless.

In less complete material, you may not be able to identify the correct claim. You can still report that two statements conflict under the conditions currently shown. Then seek the missing calculation, diagram or definition. Distinguish “these cannot both be true as written” from “I have enough evidence to establish which one is true.” The first judgment does not automatically deliver the second.

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The final worked pair is deliberately incomplete. A card says: “Twelve counters were shared equally. Each recipient received four.” Another card says: “Twelve counters were shared equally. Each recipient received three.” Neither card identifies the number of recipients. No other record is available.

The original question for the learner is: “Do these cards describe contradictory explanations of the same sharing event?” With the supplied information, the answer is unresolved. Twelve shared among three recipients gives four each; twelve shared among four recipients gives three each. Both numerical statements can describe an equal sharing, but under different recipient counts.

Do not insert those counts as if the cards supplied them. They are possible conditions that would make each statement true. A careful note says, “Card A is consistent with three recipients; Card B is consistent with four. The cards do not establish whether they describe the same event or different events.”

If a teacher later confirms that both cards refer to the same event with three recipients and all twelve counters distributed, the uncertainty changes. Four each matches that record; three each accounts for only nine counters. The missing condition has been supplied, so the learner can now check the claims against a common record.

If the teacher instead confirms that the cards describe two different events, they do not directly contradict a single event. You would still need the recipient counts to check each result. The original uncertainty accurately described what could be concluded before the additional information arrived.

This distinction prevents an appealing explanation from turning into an invented fact. A story can explain how a difference might arise without establishing how it actually arose. Words such as might, if and not supplied are useful when they track a real boundary in the evidence.

You can ask for help immediately at this boundary. There is no requirement to exhaust every imaginable interpretation first. A focused question would be: “Are these the same sharing event, and how many recipients are in each one?” That asks for the information needed to classify the pair. Asking “Which card is better?” would invite a preference without resolving the missing condition.

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A comparison record should make your decision inspectable without turning study into paperwork. Use it when the relationship is difficult enough that you may otherwise lose a definition or condition. For an obvious difference, a labelled sentence may do the job.

Start with the question you need answered and the identities of A and B. Then record the exact claim from each, the underlying record and the conditions that affect the result. Add the units or meaning of important quantities. Finish with the relationship, the reason and the next action.

Here is a complete short record for the card-sharing case: “Question: how many cards per learner? Record: two six-card packets, three learners, all cards shared equally. A establishes twelve cards altogether. B uses that total to establish four cards per learner. Result: compatible accounts of different quantities. Next action: answer four cards per learner, with the total and sharing step shown.”

The record is useful because every conclusion points back to supplied material. It does not say only “A and B are related.” It shows exactly how. Another reader can reconstruct the quantity change and check whether the final unit answers the printed question.

For the incomplete counter cards, the result line would look different: “Insufficient information: recipient counts and event identity are absent. Four each and three each are possible under different counts. Next action: request those counts and confirm whether the cards concern one event.” No forced answer is needed to complete this record.

Keep confirmed details and possible explanations visibly separate. You might use two sentences beginning “The record states…” and “One possibility is…”. Avoid placing a guessed condition in the same unlabelled list as the given facts. Later, it is easy to forget which detail came from the task and which came from you.

Finally, remove irrelevant comparison features. Font size, explanation length and the number of examples may affect readability, but they do not resolve whether fifteen plus two is seventeen. Include a feature only when it helps interpret or check the particular claim. A short record with decisive evidence is more usable than a long inventory that leaves the relationship unexplained.

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Complete the following task before reading the checked answer. The materials are original and self-contained. Your job is to classify four pairs, give the decisive reason for each and state one useful next action. You do not need to write an essay.

Pair One: cards for practice packs. The record says that one drawer contains twelve blank cards and another contains eight blank cards. All twenty cards are placed into five practice packs, with the same number in every pack and none left over. The question asks how many cards each pack contains.

Explanation A: “Combining the drawers gives twenty cards available for the five packs.” Explanation B: “Each pack contains four cards, because twenty cards divided equally among five packs gives four per pack.”

Pair Two: preparation stages. The record defines “materials ready” as having the workbook, pencil and answer notes available. It defines “task ready” as materials ready plus identifying the exact question to attempt. A learner has all three items available but has not yet chosen the question.

Explanation A: “The learner is materials ready because all three required items are available.” Explanation B: “The learner is not task ready because the exact question has not been identified.”

Pair Three: counters in a tray. The record says that four cups each contain three counters. There are seven additional loose counters in the same tray. All counters are counted once, and there are no others. The question asks for the total.

Explanation A: “The cups hold twelve counters. With seven loose counters added, the tray contains nineteen.” Explanation B: “The cups hold twelve counters. With seven loose counters added, the tray contains twenty.”

Pair Four: pages in a record. The only available statements are: “The learner read six pages today” and “The learner read eight pages today.” Neither statement identifies the learner, the date, the text, the counting rule or when the total was recorded. The question asks whether these statements concern a contradiction about one learner’s reading.

For each pair, write the question, the relationship, the decisive evidence and the next step. For Pair Three, also show the calculation that resolves the difference. For Pair Four, identify a missing detail whose answer would help you compare the claims. Do not invent the missing record merely to finish every pair with a definite verdict.

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Pair One concerns compatible claims with different quantity scopes. A gives twenty cards altogether: twelve plus eight. B gives four cards per pack: twenty divided by five. The original question asks for a pack’s contents, so four cards per pack is the requested answer. Five packs of four account for all twenty cards, matching the equal allocation and no-leftover conditions.

The next action is to use B’s final quantity while retaining A’s total as the intermediate step. Neither twenty nor four is meaningful enough without its label. If you called A wrong merely because it did not give the final share, revise that judgment: its stated subtotal is correct, while its contribution alone is incomplete as an answer to the printed question.

Pair Two concerns different preparation criteria. Materials ready requires three available items, and all three are present. Task ready also requires an identified question, which is absent. Both statements follow their definitions. The next action is to identify the question to attempt. Reassembling the materials would repeat a stage that the record already shows as complete.

This case does not establish that the learner understands the chosen topic or can solve the eventual question. The labels describe preparation, not mastery. A useful answer preserves that boundary rather than treating “task ready” as a promise of successful performance.

Pair Three is a genuine disagreement that the supplied record resolves. Four cups of three contain twelve counters. Twelve plus seven equals nineteen. A is supported; B’s final addition is incorrect. Correct the final addition and retain the shared correct subtotal. The answer is not nineteen and a half, and the record provides no basis for adding one counter to make twenty fit.

Pair Four contains insufficient information. The wording alone does not establish a shared learner, date, record or counting rule. Even if those matched, different recording times might describe different totals during the same day. Conversely, the accounts could conflict if all relevant conditions matched. At present neither relationship is established.

A useful next question is: “Do both statements refer to the same learner, text, date and recording time, using the same page-counting rule?” You could ask about these details in stages if one answer settles the issue. Do not assert that the learner read two more pages between reports; that is one possible explanation, not a fact supplied by the exercise.

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A good clarification request shows the part you can already establish and names the remaining gap. It lets the helper respond to a specific decision. You do not need a perfect comparison table or a completed answer before asking.

For different definitions, try: “A uses complete to mean that every prompt has a response. B includes checking as well. Which meaning applies to the work I need to submit?” This acknowledges the possible distinction and asks for the relevant requirement. It does not accuse either explanation of being careless.

For a quantity difference, try: “I can see twelve cards altogether and four cards per learner. The question asks for each learner’s share. Is the total an intermediate step here?” The helper can confirm the relationship or point out a condition you have missed. Your question makes the intended quantity visible.

For a real numerical disagreement, show the shared start and the differing step: “Both explanations reach fifteen counters inside the boxes. A adds two and gets seventeen; B adds two and gets eighteen. I calculate seventeen. Is there another item in the record that I have not included?” The request allows a check while making your present reasoning inspectable.

For absent information, ask for the smallest fact that could change the classification. If the two accounts never identify their recipient counts, start there. You do not need to debate the quality of their wording while the basic setup is missing. Once the fact arrives, update the comparison rather than preserving your first impression out of habit.

Keep the helper’s answer attached to the right claim. A clarification about which assignment version applies does not automatically validate every calculation in that version. Similarly, confirmation that two meanings differ does not show that every example uses its own meaning consistently. Continue only as far as the answer supports.

How to Explain Where You Got Stuck Before Asking for Learning Help gives more help with presenting an actual attempt and a focused uncertainty. Here, your comparison supplies the relevant material: two claims, the shared or missing conditions, and the decision you need help making.

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Finish the comparison by deciding what you can now do. If the claims are compatible, use their relationship to understand the task. If their scopes differ, choose the claim whose conditions match your question. If the record resolves a contradiction, correct the specific error. If information is missing, record the question and seek clarification.

Do not let comparison become an endless search for a perfectly phrased explanation. Once the relevant relationship is clear enough for the present task, make an attempt, explain a step or answer the actual question. Further reading has a purpose when it addresses a remaining gap. Collecting more accounts can also add new assumptions before the first pair has been understood.

A compact closing note might say: “These explanations use the same card record but report different quantities. Twelve is the total and four is the equal share. I will answer in cards per learner and show the division.” Another might say: “The two reading totals lack identifying details. I will ask which learner and recording time each describes before treating them as a conflict.”

These notes contain a decision, its reason and a next action. They do not claim that you have evaluated an entire resource or mastered a subject. The boundary keeps the result useful: you know exactly what this comparison settled and what it left open.

If the next step is choosing appropriate practice, use How to Choose Practice Questions That Match the Skill You Are Repairing. If the problem is finding an explanation that addresses your question in the first place, return to How to Check Whether a Learning Resource Answers Your Question.

The broader Recovery and Transformation guide connects this small learning decision with other next steps. For the present task, leave with one clear sentence: what each explanation means under its own conditions, how the two claims relate, and what you will do with that understanding. When the evidence does not yet allow that sentence to be definite, a precise unanswered question is a useful result.

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