if the distance between the Earth and the Sun remained the same throughout the year. This thought is in parallel with the thought that “the Earth is closer to the Sun in summer” which greatly caused the students to give the wrong answer in the first question. In this question, only 10.6% of the students gave the correct answer “the seasons would be as they are today”. Eighth graders who were more successful than others in the first three questions could not show the same level of success in this question.