Summarize Argument
Most students conclude that the first magazine, but not the second, was morally delinquent for publishing the advertisement. No evidence is provided for this judgement.
Notable Assumptions
Most students assume that a magazine is morally delinquent if it has reviewed and published an offensive advertisement, but not morally delinquent if it simply publishes every submitted advertisement. Most students therefore believe that a policy of publishing every advertisement isn’t in itself morally delinquent.
A
It is wrong to publish messages that could cause direct or indirect harm to innocent people.
Most students only judge the first magazine to have done something wrong. This tells us both did something wrong.
B
Anyone regularly transmitting messages to the public has a moral responsibility to monitor the content of those messages.
This applies to both magazines. Yet most students think only the first magazine did something wrong.
C
If two similar agents commit two similar actions, those agents should be held to the same standard of accountability.
Both magazines committed the same action, so they should be judged the same. However, most students think only the first magazine did something wrong.
D
Failure to uphold a moral standard is not necessarily a moral failing except for those who have specifically committed themselves to upholding that standard.
Since the first magazine tried and failed to uphold a moral standard, that magazine committed a moral failing. The other magazine didn’t bother with moral standards, hence why most students don’t think that magazine did anything wrong.
E
A magazine should not be considered at fault for publishing a classified advertisement if that advertisement would not be offensive to any of the magazine’s subscribers.
The advertisement was offensive.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why has the number of people diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency in the United States and Canada increased during the same period that farmers in these countries have reported increasing demands for carrots, which are one of the best sources of naturally occurring vitamin A?
Objective
The correct answer must be the only answer that doesn’t help to explain the vitamin A deficiency phenomenon.
A
The population has significantly increased in every age group.
If all age groups have become more populous, then age groups more likely to be diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency have become more populous. This would provide a possible explanation for the increase in people diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency.
B
The purchase of peeled and chopped carrots has become very popular, though carrots are known to lose their vitamins quickly once peeled.
People purchasing peeled and chopped carrots means these people are likely purchasing fewer whole carrots. Therefore, these people are likely to get less vitamin A in their diet, increasing the likelihood that they’d be diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency.
C
Certain cuisines that have become popular use many more vegetable ingredients, including carrots, than most cuisines that were previously popular.
If currently popular cuisines use more carrots than most previously popular cuisines, more people are likely eating carrots than previously. Therefore, (C) doesn’t explain the increase in people diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency and may even make the phenomenon more confusing.
D
Carrot consumption has increased only among those demographic groups that have historically had low vitamin A deficiency rates.
If the only people who increased their carrot consumption are those who were already unlikely to experience vitamin A deficiency, the increase in carrot consumption is unlikely to significantly lessen the number of people diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency.
E
Weather conditions have caused a decrease in the availability of carrots.
If fewer carrots are available to people, then it’s likely that fewer people are eating carrots, meaning people are likely getting less vitamin A in their diets. This would provide a possible explanation for the increase in people diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency.
Naturalist: To be dependable, the accounting framework used by national economists to advise the government must take into account all of our nation’s assets; but the current accounting framework used by our national economists assigns no value to government-owned natural resources, which are clearly assets.
Summary
If the accounting framework used by national economists is dependable, then the framework must account for all of our nation’s assets. However, the current accounting framework used by national economists assigns no value to government-owned natural resources, which are assets.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The accounting framework used by national economists is not dependable.
A
Economists’ indifference toward the destruction of natural resources will lead policymakers to make poor decisions.
We don’t know whether national economists are indifferent towards the destruction of natural resources.
B
Naturalists and economists disagree about whether natural resources have value.
We don’t know whether national economists believe natural resources have value or not.
C
The accounting framework used by national economists is not reliable.
The accounting framework must be unreliable since it fails the requirement of accounting for all of the nation’s assets.
D
Natural resources are a vital economic asset for every nation.
We don’t know whether natural resources are an asset for every nation. The stimulus is limited to the Naturalist’s nation.
E
Changes in the environment have a value that is not represented in any accounting framework.
We don’t know if changes in the environment are not accounted for in any accounting framework.
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that being near woodlands promotes crop health for crops that depend on pollination. This is because bees visit flowers close to woodlands far more often than flowers far from wetlands.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the frequency with which a bee visits a flower has an effect on its pollination. If bees only need to visit a flower once to pollinate it, then additional visits would make little difference.
A
The likelihood that a plant is pollinated increases as the number of visits from pollinators increases.
The more often a bee visits a plant, the more likely the plant is to be pollinated. Being close to woodlands is thus beneficial to crops that depend on pollination, since bees visit crops near woodlands more often than those far from woodlands.
B
Many bees live in habitats other than woodlands.
We don’t care where bees live. We already know they visit flowers near woodlands more often than those far from woodlands.
C
Woodlands are not the natural habitat of all pollinators.
Like (B), this is totally irrelevant. We already know bees visit flowers near woodlands more often than those far from woodlands. We don’t care about other pollinators.
D
Some pollinators visit flowers far from their habitats more often than they visit flowers close to their habitats.
We already know bees visit flowers near woodlands more often than those far from woodlands. We don’t care about other pollinators.
E
Many crops that are not near woodlands depend on pollination.
According to the author, those crops would be more successful if they were near woodlands. This doesn’t strengthen the argument.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that producing characters more automatically frees up mental resources for other activities. This is based on a study of 100 first-graders who received after-school lessons in handwriting, which showed that those whose composition skills had improved the most had learned to write letters the most automatically.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that in the study, the improvement in how automatically students could write letters contributed to improved composition skills. The author also assumes that the mechanism underlying this relationship was that writing letters more automatically freed up mental resources that could be used for composition. Another assumption is that the correlation observed among the students who composition skills had improved the most also existed for other students who had improved their composition skills.
A
Among the first-graders who received the after-school lessons in handwriting, those who practiced the most learned to write letters the most automatically.
(A) tells us why the students who learned to write letters most automatically were able to do so. But this doesn’t help connect writing letters automatically to improved composition skills.
B
The first-graders who wrote letters the most automatically before receiving the after-school lessons in handwriting showed the greatest improvement in their composition skills over the course of the lessons.
We already know there’s a correlation in the study between the most improved composition skills and learning to write letters the most automatically. (B) doesn’t reveal any new information that suggests a causal connection.
C
Over the course of the lessons, the first-graders who showed greater improvement in their ability to write letters automatically also generally showed greater improvement in their composition skills.
This strengthens by showing that the correlation observed among the ones who had learned to write letters the most automatically was also observed among the broader group.
D
Before receiving the after-school lessons in handwriting, the 100 first-graders who received the lessons were representative of first-graders more generally, with respect to their skills in both handwriting and composition.
Representativeness wasn’t an issue because the author’ didn’t assert that every first-grader could achieve the same results observed in the experiment. The conclusion was simply that there’s a causal relationship between writing letters more automatically and freeing mental resources.
E
Among the first-graders who received the lessons in handwriting, those who started out with strong composition skills showed substantial improvement in how automatically they could write letters.
We already know there’s a correlation in the study between the most improved composition skills and learning to write letters the most automatically. (E) doesn’t reveal any new information that suggests a causal connection.
Thelma: This glut of middle-aged workers will lead many people to form their own companies. They will work hard and thus increase economic productivity, improving the quality of life even if many of the companies ultimately fail.
Speaker 1 Summary
Claude concludes that economic productivity and the quality of life will diminish. This is because of a causal chain: the high number of middle-aged people in the workforce will lead to fewer opportunities for promotions, which will decrease people’s incentive to work hard.
Speaker 2 Summary
Thelma concludes that quality of life will improve. This is because of her own causal chain: the large number of middle-aged workers will lead people to form new companies, which will lead those people to work hard, which will increase economic productivity.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of agreement. The speakers agree that there’s a high number of middle-aged people in the workforce and that this can influence people’s decisions regarding work.
A
The quality of life in a society affects that society’s economic productivity.
Neither speaker expresses an opinion. Claude doesn’t indicate a causal relationship between economic productivity and quality of life. Thelma indicates that more economic productivity will improve quality of life, but doesn’t say the relationship can be reversed.
B
The failure of many companies will not necessarily have a negative effect on overall economic productivity.
Claude expresses no opinion. He doesn’t discuss failing companies.
C
How hard a company’s employees work is a function of what they think their chances for promotion are in that company.
Thelma expresses no opinion. She doesn’t discuss promotions or how people react based on their perception of chances of promotion. She does believe people will form their own companies, but that doesn’t mean this decision is influenced by the chances of promotion.
D
The number of middle-aged people in the workforce will increase in the coming years.
Neither expresses an opinion. They both agree that there currently is a high number of middle-aged people in the workforce, but they don’t speak to whether the number of these people will increase in the future.
E
Economic productivity will be affected by the number of middle-aged people in the workforce.
This is a point of agreement. The speakers disagree about whether productivity will go up (Thelma thinks this) or down (Claude thinks this), but they both agree that there will be some effect on productivity from the number of middle-aged people in the workforce.
Summary
Fiber-optic telephone cables are more expensive to make than copper cable. Networks using fiber-optic cables are less expensive overall than copper. This is because copper cables require frequent amplification of electrical signals to travel long distances, whereas fiber-optic cables use light pulses that travel farther before requiring amplification.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Savings from switching to fiber-optic cables from copper cables exceeds the greater manufacturing cost.
A
The material from which fiber-optic cable is manufactured is more expensive than the copper from which copper cable is made.
This is unsupported because while we know it is more expensive to manufacture fiber-optic cable, we don’t know if this is directly due to the price of materials or some other part of the manufacturing process.
B
The increase in the number of transmissions of complex signals through telephone cables is straining those telephone networks that still use copper cable.
This is unsupported because while we know that it is more expensive to send signals long distance with copper, we don’t know that it necessarily puts more strain on the networks.
C
Fiber-optic cable can carry many more signals simultaneously than copper cable can.
This is unsupported because we are not told anything about the quantity of signals that each type of cable can carry.
D
Signals transmitted through fiber-optic cable travel at the same speed as signals transmitted through copper cable.
This is unsupported because the author only tells us about the cost, not about the speed of transmitting signals on each type of cable.
E
The cost associated with frequent amplification of signals traveling through copper cable exceeds the extra manufacturing cost of fiber-optic cable.
This is strongly supported because the author states that switching to fiber-optic cables can save money overall despite the greater cost associated with manufacturing fiber optic cables.
For generations, magnificent racehorses have been bred in our area. Our most valuable product, however, has been generations of children raised with the character that makes them winners in the contests of life. Gambling is wrong, and children raised in an atmosphere where the goal is to get something for nothing will not develop good character. Those who favor developing good character in children over gambling on horses should vote against allowing our first racetrack to be built. L.E.
Summarize Argument
L.E. concludes that people who value raising children with good character more than gambling should vote against building a racetrack in their area. This is for two reasons: gambling is wrong, and raising children in an environment where the goal is be rewarded for nothing prevents them from developing good character.
Notable Assumptions
L.E. assumes that normalizing gambling by allowing a racetrack to be built will create an environment in which the goal is to get something for nothing. This leads to another assumption: that gambling and raising children with good character are mutually exclusive.
A
If good character is developed in children early, the children continue to have good character in different environments.
This does not affect the argument. L.E. claims that children who are exposed to gambling through the atmosphere described will not develop good character in the first place, which makes (A) irrelevant.
B
In other areas with gambling, parents are able to raise children of good character.
This weakens the argument. It shows that gambling and raising children with good character are not mutually exclusive, as the author assumes. Other areas have been shown to have both.
C
In most areas with horse racing, the percentage of adults who gamble increases gradually from year to year.
This does not affect the argument. The argument is about gambling on horses and its effect on children, not adults.
D
Children whose parents gamble do not necessarily gamble when they become adults.
This does not affect the argument. The argument is not that children who grow up around gambling will gamble, but that children who grow up around gambling will not develop good character.
E
Where voters have had the opportunity to vote on horse racing, they have consistently approved it.
This does not affect the argument. L.E. is not trying to make a prediction about which way the vote will go—L.E. is making an argument about how people should vote based on their values.