When the author refers to astronomers as bullies trying to kick everyone’s favorite cosmic underdog out of the club
in paragraph 8, he is using —
A understatement
B overstatement
C a straw man
D a red herring
7 Since then, Pluto has been very much a part of our mental map of the universe. You’ll find it on lunchboxes,
postage stamps, NASA Web sites, and in the mnemonics that children learn to remember the planets. Pluto’s
qualifications may be more cultural than scientific, but we’ve fully embraced it as a planet in good standing.
8 This is why astronomers who question Pluto’s status come across as bullies trying to kick everyone’s favorite
cosmic underdog out of the club. And while they have a point—after all, it’s not a great idea to let cultural
attachments dictate scientific categories—they’re missing an important part of the picture.
9 Think of it this way. The term “planet” is similar to “continent.” The word helps us organize our world, but the
division between continents and subcontinents is thoroughly arbitrary. Yet no union of geologists has tried to
vote on a definition of “continent,” and no one is concerned that letting culture determine the difference between
Australia, the smallest continent, and Greenland, the largest island, somehow erodes science.
