A
Businesses supplying new technologies are more likely to prosper in times of accelerated technological change than other businesses.
B
Businesses that supply new technologies may not always benefit from economic growth.
C
The development of new technologies may accelerate economic growth in general.
D
Businesses that adopt new technologies are most likely to prosper in a period of general economic growth.
E
Economic growth increases business failures.
Parent: Pushing very young children into rigorous study in an effort to make our nation more competitive does more harm than good. Curricula for these young students must address their special developmental needs, and while rigorous work in secondary school makes sense, the same approach in the early years of primary school produces only short-term gains and may cause young children to burn out on schoolwork. Using very young students as pawns in the race to make the nation economically competitive is unfair and may ultimately work against us.
Summary
Rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense.
Making young children do rigorous schoolwork in order to make the country more competitive does more harm than good; it’s unfair and may backfire.
Rigorous schoolwork in primary school only produces short-term gains and can lead to burnout.
Schoolwork for young children must address their developmental needs.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
Rigorous schoolwork in primary school does not address young children’s developmental needs.
A
For our nation to be competitive, our secondary school curriculum must include more rigorous study than it now does.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a condition that’s necessary for making the nation competitive. Also, while she says that rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense, she doesn’t imply that it should be more rigorous than it is now.
B
The developmental needs of secondary school students are not now being addressed in our high schools.
Unsupported. The parent says that rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense, but she never mentions whether secondary school students’ developmental needs are being addressed.
C
Our country can be competitive only if the developmental needs of all our students can be met.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a necessary condition for making the nation competitive. She says that schoolwork must address the developmental needs of young children, but doesn’t imply that this will then make the country competitive.
D
A curriculum of rigorous study does not adequately address the developmental needs of primary school students.
Very strongly supported. Schoolwork for young children must address their developmental needs, but rigorous schoolwork does more harm than good, leads to burnout, and only produces short-term gains. So we can infer that it doesn’t address young children’s developmental needs.
E
Unless our nation encourages more rigorous study in the early years of primary school, we cannot be economically competitive.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a necessary condition for making the nation competitive. She says it’s unfair to make young children do rigorous schoolwork in order to make the nation competitive; she never says that this is necessary for making it competitive.
Sam: Mountain lions, a protected species, are preying on bighorn sheep, another protected species. We must let nature take its course and hope the bighorns survive.
Meli: Nonsense. We must do what we can to ensure the survival of the bighorn, even if that means limiting the mountain lion population.
Speaker 1 Summary
Sam doesn’t make an argument, instead just claiming without support that humans should not intervene when one protected species (mountain lions) is preying on another protected species (bighorn sheep).
Speaker 2 Summary
Meli states the opinion that humans should ensure bighorn sheep survive, even if that requires taking action against mountain lions. This also isn’t an argument, because Meli doesn’t offer any support.
Objective
We need to find a point of disagreement between Sam and Meli. The two disagree about whether or not humans should intervene to protect bighorn sheep from mountain lions.
A
Humans should not intervene to protect bighorn sheep from mountain lions.
Sam agrees with this, but Meli disagrees, meaning that this is the point of disagreement. Sam states that humans should “let nature take its course,” meaning not intervene, while Meli says that humans should take action to protect the sheep.
B
The preservation of a species as a whole is more important than the loss of a few individuals.
Neither speaker offers an opinion. Sam and Meli’s discussion is about what role people should take in a specific predator-prey dynamic, not about overall principles of species preservation.
C
The preservation of a predatory species is easier to ensure than the preservation of the species preyed upon.
Neither speaker talks about this. Firstly, neither Sam nor Meli discusses which species is easier to preserve between mountain lions and bighorn sheep. Second, they also never discuss general principles applicable to all species.
D
Any measures to limit the mountain lion population would likely push the species to extinction.
Neither speaker makes this claim. Only Meli talks about potentially taking measures to limit the mountain lion population, but never mentions a risk or likelihood of extinction.
E
If the population of mountain lions is not limited, the bighorn sheep species will not survive.
Neither speaker claims this. Meli is the only speaker who mentions limiting the mountain lion population, but even that is only meant as a potential measure that could be taken, not as a necessary step to saving bighorn sheep.
Sometimes it’s more practical to keep something that’s the societal standard even if a change could have some benefits.
A
Often it is not worthwhile to move to a process that improves speed if it comes at the expense of accuracy.
B
People usually settle on a standard because that standard is more efficient than any alternatives.
C
People often remain with an entrenched standard rather than move to a more efficient alternative simply because they dislike change.
D
The emotional cost associated with change is a factor that sometimes outweighs financial considerations.
E
The fact that a standard is already in wide use can be a crucial factor in making it a more practical choice than an alternative.
A
contains a premise that presupposes the truth of the conclusion
B
presumes that what is true of each person in a country is also true of the country’s population as a whole
C
defends a view solely on the grounds that the view is widely held
D
bases its conclusion on a sample that is unlikely to accurately represent people in the country as a whole
E
fails to make a needed distinction between wanting to be an artist and making a living as an artist
A
proof that the engineer is not at all responsible for the train wreck
B
a reason for believing that the wreck would have occurred even if Acme Engines had remodeled their older locomotives
C
an explanation of why the train wreck occurred
D
evidence that knee-level switches are not in fact hazardous
E
an indication that Acme Engines had been aware of the potential dangers of knee-level switches before the wreck occurred
A
infers that something that is sufficient to provide a motive is necessary to provide a motive
B
fails to address the possibility that in some cases the primary goal of criticism is something other than bringing about change in the person being criticized
C
takes for granted that everyone who is motivated to change will change
D
confuses a motive for doing something with a motive for avoiding something
E
takes the refutation of an argument to be sufficient to show that the argument’s conclusion is false