Under the influence of today’s computer-oriented culture, publishing for children has taken on a flashy new look that emphasizes illustrations and graphic design; the resulting lack of substance leads to books that are short-lived items covering mainly trendy subjects. The changes also include more humorous content, simplification of difficult material, and a narrower focus on specific topics.

Summary
Publishing for children has changed. It has been influenced by computer-oriented culture. Publishing emphasizes a flashy look that causes a lack of substance, which leads to short-lived, trend-focused books. The books have also changed to be more humorous, simple, and narrow.

Strongly Supported Conclusions
Computer-oriented culture has changed today’s publishing for children.
The changes cause a lack of substance.
The lack of substance results in short lived books.
The culture-driven changes in children’s books have also made those books more humorous, simpler, and narrower in subject matter.

A
The inclusion of humorous material and a narrower focus detract from the substance of a children’s book.
Unsupported. These changes have all occurred alongside each other, but nothing in the stimulus suggests that the humor and narrower focus are causes of the decreased substance.
B
The substance of a children’s book is important to its longevity.
Strongly supported. The reason given for why the books are short-lived is that they lack substance. The lack of substance “leads” to the poor longevity.
C
Children of the computer generation cannot concentrate on long, unbroken sections of prose.
Unsupported. The stimulus discusses the changes in publishing for children, but does not consider the actual children’s concentration.
D
Children judge books primarily on the basis of graphic design.
Unsupported. The stimulus discusses the changes in publishing for children, but does not consider how the actual children evaluate books.
E
The lack of substance of a children’s book is unlikely to be important to its popularity.
Unsupported. There is no evidence to conclude anything about what makes a children’s book popular, but we do know the lack of substance will hurt longevity.

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Note: J.Y. says "sleepiness" instead of "sleeplessness" for answer choice (E). While his 'verbal typo' is wrong, the answer given is still right.


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Pollen and other allergens can cause cells in the nose to release histamine, a chemical that inflames nasal tissue and causes runny nose, congestion, and sneezing. Antihistamines minimize these allergy symptoms by blocking the action of histamine. In addition, antihistamines have other effects, including drowsiness. However, histamine plays no role in the processes by which colds produce their symptoms.

Summary
Pollen/allergens can cause cells in nose to release histamine.
Histamine causes certain allergy symptoms.
Antihistamines can reduce these allergy symptoms by blocking the action of histamine.
Antihistamines also have other effects. One of those effects is drowsiness.
Histamine doesn’t play any role in how colds produce symptoms.

Notable Valid Inferences
We’re looking for what must be true. This set of facts doesn’t produce any obvious inferences, so I’d mainly rely on process of elimination.

A
Pollen and other allergens do not cause colds.
Could be false. We know that histamine doesn’t play role in how colds produce symptoms. But what causes colds? We don’t know that pollens and allergens don’t cause colds.
B
Colds are more difficult to treat than allergies.
Could be false. We don’t know what’s more difficult to treat. Although antihistamines can reduce allergy symptoms, that doesn’t mean allergies are easier to treat than colds. Maybe antihistamines can also reduce cold symptoms, or there are other things that can treat colds.
C
Antihistamines, when taken alone, are ineffective against congestion caused by colds.
Could be false. We were told antihistamines have “other effects.” Those effects might include reducing cold symptoms; we don’t know. Although histamines aren’t part of cold symptoms, antihistamines might still reduce those symptoms through some means besides blocking histamines.
D
The sleeplessness that sometimes accompanies allergies can be effectively treated with antihistamines.
Could be false. We don’t know whether antihistamines can “effectively treat” sleeplessness. Although antihistamines can cause drowsiness, that doesn’t guarantee that they can treat sleeplessness.
E
Any effect antihistamines may have in reducing cold symptoms does not result from blocking the action of histamine.
Must be true. Histamines play no role in how colds produce symptoms. So, if antihistamines can reduce cold symptoms, it won’t be through blocking histamines. It would be through some other mechanism that’s related to producing cold symptoms.

Note: J.Y. says "sleepiness" instead of "sleeplessness" for answer choice (D). While his 'verbal typo' is wrong, the explanation given is still right.


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Okay so the stimulus is telling us about some psychological studies, where subjects were told to read something and that whatever it was they read caused them to develop some beliefs. Then, the researchers told them that the statements they had read were false. Counterintuitively most of the people who had formed these beliefs stuck with them, even after being told that the statements that led to them were false. This is the phenomenon that is seeking an explanation, and the journal proposes that this is because once humans acquire a belief they tend to hold on to that belief.

We have the weaken this argument, so we are really looking for another reason why these people might have stuck to their original belief that is not the result of some innate tendency to maintain ones beliefs.

Answer choice (A) really does not tell us anything. Whether the beliefs were correct or not is irrelevant to the point at issue. We are wondering why these people continued to believe they were correct even when told the opposite.

Answer choice (B) is really more an opinion than anything else. Who cares if it's unrealistic?

Answer choice (C) is similar, who cares if the statements were misleading. The participants formed beliefs, those beliefs were then challenged, and the participants maintained them nevertheless. Whether the original basis for those beliefs was actually misleading is irrelevant.

Answer choice (D) is the correct answer. If the subjects had acquired confirmation of the beliefs before being told the original statements were false, they would not need the original statements to maintain the belief. There would be another support structure for the beliefs that they developed and the original statements could fall away without a problem.

Answer choice (E) again is just totally irrelevant. Their skepticism does not actually matter because we are told that they did in fact form beliefs.


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