Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
A photograph of the night sky was taken with the camera shutter open for an extended period. The normal motion of stars across the sky caused the images of the stars in the photograph to appear as streaks. However, one bright spot was not streaked. Even if the spot were caused, as astronomers believe, by a celestial object, that object could still have been moving across the sky during the time the shutter was open, since __________.

A six-sided mosaic contains 24 triangular pieces of tile of the same size and shape, as shown in the figure above. If the sections of tile fit together perfectly, how many square centimeters of tile are in the mosaic?
| Line | Much research has been devoted to investigating |
| what motivates consumers to try new products. | |
| Previous consumer research suggests that both the | |
| price of a new product and the way it is advertised | |
| (5) | affect consumers perceptions of the products |
| performance risk (the possibility that the product will | |
| not function as consumers expect and/or will not | |
| provide the desired benefits). Some of this research | |
| has concluded that a relatively high price will reduce | |
| (10) | a consumers perception of the performance risk |
| associated with purchasing a particular product, | |
| while other studies have reported that price has little | |
| or no effect on perceived performance risk. These | |
| conflicting findings may simply be due to the nature | |
| (15) | of product advertisements: a recent study indicates |
| that the presentation of an advertised message has a | |
| marked effect on the relationship between price and | |
| perceived performance risk. | |
| Researchers have identified consumers perception | |
| (20) | of the credibility of the source of an advertised |
| message—i.e., the manufacturer—as another factor | |
| affecting perceived performance risk: one study | |
| found that the greater the source credibility, the lower | |
| the consumers perception of the risk of purchasing | |
| (25) | an advertised new product. However, past research |
| suggests that the relationship between source | |
| credibility and perceived performance risk may be | |
| more complex: source credibility may interact with | |
| price in a subtle way to affect consumers judgments | |
| (30) | of the performance risk associated with an advertised |
| product. |

| Line | In 1971 researchers hoping to predict earthquakes in |
| the short term by identifying precursory phenomena | |
| (those that occur a few days before large quakes | |
| but not otherwise) turned their attention to changes | |
| (5) | in seismic waves that had been detected prior to |
| earthquakes. An explanation for such changes was | |
| offered by “dilatancy theory,” based on a well-known | |
| phenomenon observed in rocks in the laboratory: | |
| as stress builds, microfractures in rock close, | |
| (10) | decreasing the rock’s volume. But as stress |
| continues to increase, the rock begins to crack and | |
| expand in volume, allowing groundwater to seep in, | |
| weakening the rock. According to this theory, such | |
| effects could lead to several precursory phenomena in | |
| (15) | the field, including a change in the velocity of seismic |
| waves, and an increase in small, nearby tremors. | |
| Researchers initially reported success in identifying | |
| these possible precursors, but subsequent analyses | |
| of their data proved disheartening. Seismic waves | |
| (20) | with unusual velocities were recorded before some |
| earthquakes, but while the historical record confirms | |
| that most large earthquakes are preceded by minor | |
| tremors, these foreshocks indicate nothing about | |
| the magnitude of an impending quake and are | |
| (25) | indistinguishable from other minor tremors that occur |
| without large earthquakes. | |
| In the 1980s, some researchers turned their | |
| efforts from short-term to long-term prediction. | |
| Noting that earthquakes tend to occur repeatedly in | |
| (30) | certain regions, Lindh and Baker attempted to identify |
| patterns of recurrence, or earthquake cycles, on which | |
| to base predictions. In a study of earthquake-prone | |
| sites along the San Andreas Fault, they determined | |
| that quakes occurred at intervals of approximately 22 | |
| (35) | years near one site and concluded that there was a |
| 95 percent probability of an earthquake in that area | |
| by 1992. The earthquake did not occur within the time | |
| frame predicted, however. | |
| Evidence against the kind of regular | |
| (40) | earthquake cycles that Lindh and Baker tried |
| to establish has come from a relatively new | |
| field, paleoseismology. Paleoseismologists | |
| have unearthed and dated geological features | |
| such as fault scarps that were caused by | |
| (45) | earthquakes thousands of years ago. They have |
| determined that the average interval between ten | |
| earthquakes that took place at one site along the | |
| San Andreas Fault in the past two millennia was | |
| 132 years, but individual intervals ranged greatly, | |
| (50) | from 44 to 332 years. |
The author implies which of the following about the ability of the researchers mentioned in line 18 to predict earthquakes?