Most students are bored by history

Answer choices

1. A

   Assumed13% picked this

   One should avoid boring one’s students when teaching a

   In order for the author to think we're not currently using the best method, she has to think that it's actually a problem that students are bored by the current method. If we negated this answer, it would say "you don't need to avoid boring students when teaching history", which would be an objection to our author's argument.

   13%
2. B

   Assumed16% picked this

   It is not incompatible with the attainable goals of teaching history to spend very little class time

   Because this has the magic word "not", which is frequently in valid Necessary Assumption answers, the easiest thing to do to evaluate it is negate the answer, by removing "not", and see if it turns into an objection: "It is incompatible with the teaching goals of history to spend very little class time on dates / stats". This negation definitely hurts the argument, because it makes the author's suggestion for the best way to teach history sound like a method that is incompatible with the teaching goals of history. Since the negation weakens, the answer was something the argument needed to assume.

   16%
3. C

   Correct52% picked this

   It is possible to recount the lives of historical figures without referring to

   Why this is right

   This is tempting, but if we negate it and say, "Hey, author, aren't you forgetting that it is impossible to focus on historical figures without referring to dates / stats?", she could just say, "No, I realize that. As you recall, I said we'll spend most of our time recounting the lives of historical figures, but I allowed for the fact that we'll need to spend some time with dates and stats."

   Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   52%
4. D

   Assumed5% picked this

   It is compatible with the attainable goals of teaching history to spend most class time recounting the

   If we negated this, it would say "it is incompatible with the goals of teaching history to spent most time on historical figures". It's gonna be hard for the author to argue that her plan is the best way to teach history if her plan is incompatible with the attainable teaching goals of teaching history. Since the negation of this idea badly weakens her argument, her argument had to assume this idea.

   5%
5. E

   Assumed14% picked this

   Students are more bored by history courses as they are usually taught than they would be by courses that spend most class time

   This gets at the idea that the Author is assuming that her plan is better than the old plan, when it comes to the one stated negative about the old plan: it bores students. Any time an author says, "Problem X exists. That's why we should do Action Y", they will be assuming that "if we do Action Y, there will be less of Problem X"

   14%