A
Heat loss due to wind is less in Taychester than in Charlesville.
B
Although Charlesville is always fairly warm during the daytime, temperatures in Charlesville drop steeply at night.
C
Utility rates in Taychester are lower than utility rates in Charlesville.
D
People who are used to warmer temperatures generally keep their homes warmer in the winter than do people who are used to colder temperatures.
E
Houses in colder climates are usually better insulated than houses in warmer climates.
Alvaro: But the problems are always caused by a failure to recode the database properly. The best advice for a company considering a database overhaul is to do the job right.
A
why companies should consider overhauling their databases
B
whether the problems experienced during a database overhaul ever outweigh the rewards
C
which kinds of database overhauls have more problems than are justified by the rewards
D
what a company should do when considering a database overhaul
E
when professional experience is required to correctly recode a database
A
presupposes the falsity of the view that it sets out to refute
B
takes for granted that the main purpose of poems is to convey information rather than express feelings
C
takes for granted that a paraphrase of a poem cannot be useful to its readers unless it accurately expresses a poem’s meaning
D
provides no justification for favoring one of the literary critics’ beliefs over the other
E
provides no justification for following one particular definition of “paraphrase”
In a scene in an ancient Greek play, Knights, the character Demosthenes opens a writing tablet on which an oracle had written a prophecy, and while looking at the tablet, he continuously expresses his amazement at its contents. His companion presses him for information, whereupon Demosthenes explains what the oracle had written.
Summary
In a scene in one ancient Greek play, a character (Demosthenes) opens a tablet and expresses amazement at what was written on it.
Demosthenes’s companion requests information in response to his reaction.
Demosthenes explains to his companion what was written on the tablet.
Notable Valid Inferences
In this scene, Demosthenes did not read the prophecy out loud.
A
In ancient Greek plays, characters are presumed to know how to read unless their illiteracy is specifically mentioned.
This could be true. We only know what happened in one specific scene in one play. Further, neither character’s illiteracy is specifically mentioned, so according to (A), both characters would be presumed to know how to read. This presumption isn’t rejected by the stimulus.
B
The character of Demosthenes in Knights is not based on a historical figure.
This could be true. We have no information to support or reject this claim.
C
In ancient Greek plays, the reading aloud of written texts commonly occurred as part of the on-stage action.
This could be true. We only have information about one scene in one play where something was read silently; we don’t know whether or not reading out loud occurred commonly.
D
In ancient Greece, people did not read silently to themselves.
The stimulus provides evidence against this. We can reject the claim in (D) because the stimulus provides an indication that someone read silently. (D) says that reading silently never happened, and the stimulus provides an example of it happening, so the stimulus rejects (D).
E
Only rarely in ancient Greece were prophecies written down on writing tablets.
This could be true. We only know what happened in this scene in this one play; we don’t know how commonly prophecies were written down in ancient Greece. We don’t have the information to reject this claim.
A
Tiktaalik likely used its fingers to move on land.
B
Tiktaalik’s fingers were its only feature to play a significant role in the development of modern land animals.
C
Tiktaalik is not the ancestor of any currently surviving fish species.
D
No fish without fingers would ever be able to move on land.
E
The evolutionary significance of Tiktaalik could not be determined just through comparison to fish species of its time.
A
Any songwriter who receives revenue from radio airplay has written a hit song.
B
All songwriters who write songs for movie sound tracks have had their songs played on the radio thousands of times.
C
Some songs written for movie sound tracks are played on the radio thousands of times.
D
Most songwriters prefer the possibility of continued income to single up-front payments for their songs.
E
Some songwriters earn money solely from the radio airplay of their songs.
Lecturer: If I say, “I tried to get my work done on time,” the meanings of my words do not indicate that I didn’t get it done on time. But usually you would correctly understand me to be saying that I didn’t. After all, if I had gotten my work done on time, I would instead just say, “I got my work done on time.” And this example is typical of how conversation works.
Summary
The lecturer gives us an example of a statement that, in a conversation, contains meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words. The literal meaning of “I tried to get my work done on time” does not express that I didn’t get my work done on time. But if I made that statement, you’d be correct to understand me as asserting that I didn’t get my work done on time. This example is typical of other statements in a conversation.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
People say things that contain meanings beyond the literal meaning of the words.
A
Understanding what people say often requires more than just understanding the meanings of the words they use.
Strongly supported. We have an example of a statement that contains meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words. This was typical of conversations. So, understanding the meaning of some other things people say requires more than just the meaning of the literal words.
B
It is unusual for English words to function in communication in the way that “tried” does.
Unsupported. The stimulus gave us an example of something that is typical (usual) in conversations. There’s no support for a claim about the function of certain words being unusual.
C
Understanding what people use a word to mean often requires detecting their nonverbal cues.
Unsupported. We don’t know that understanding the meaning of the example in the stimulus requires nonverbal cues. We might get the meaning from the context in which it’s made, or from the fact the person didn’t say something else.
D
Speakers often convey more information in conversation than they intend to convey.
Unsupported. The example in the stimulus concerns a speaker who intends to express more than what the literal words mean. It doesn’t concern someone who expressed more than he intended.
E
Listeners cannot reasonably be expected to have the knowledge typically required for successful communication.
Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t tell us anything about how likely people will interpret statements accurately. Maybe most people interpret statements in conversations accurately; there’s no evidence either for or against this possibility.