A possibility needs a clear status
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
One student's explanation remained nebulous: the new page supposedly worked because it had a more natural flow, but he could not identify what that phrase described. Leila offered a more plausible possibility, suggesting that the larger separation between titles might have helped readers distinguish entries. The claim was still unsubstantiated because several features had changed together. She proposed comparing two versions that differed only in spacing before presenting the explanation as something the class had established through its observations.
The nebulous phrase became less useful once the students asked what they would actually change to test it. A plausible explanation gave them a specific question, but plausibility did not convert an unsubstantiated claim into a finding. They wrote the spacing idea in a section reserved for possibilities to examine next. The final presentation described the observed task results separately from proposed reasons, allowing the audience to see where the evidence ended and the next inquiry would begin.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.