Logical Reasoning

PT106 · S1 · Q22 Under the influence of today’s

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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.

Information

Causal Difference-Maker (under the influence) Because of the modern computer-oriented culture, children's publishing has a flashy new look that emphasizes illustrations and graphic design.

Causal Chain (resulting / leads to) Flashy new look lack of short-lived emphasizing ⇢ substance ⇢ lifespan w/ graphics trendy topics

The last sentence doesn't have any causal connector language attached, so I wouldn't want an answer to try connecting this last sentence to the stuff in the first sentence, but it does offer a few comparative differences with older children's publishing.

We know that today's children's publishing is more likely to have humor, less likely to have complexity, and covers a less wide range of topics.

Evaluate / Goal

The correct answer will probably reinforce the causal connections identified in the first sentence.

Computer culture led to a flashier look, which led to a lack of substance, which led to short-lived books that cover trendy (not timeless) subjects.

22.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

The inclusion of humorous material
Unsupported Relationship
This answer is trying to relate what's talked about in the second sentence (humor / narrow focus) to what's talked about in the first sentence (lack of substance), but those two sentences don't have any causal connection stated.
19% picked this
Correct
The substance of a children’s
Why this is right
This reinforces one of the causal connections identified. "The resulting lack of substance leads to books that are short-lived". In other words, 'substance is important to being long-lived'. Remember that with causality, we're allowed to make Most Supported inferences that kind of feel like illegal negations. If we say, "Because the bouquet lacked tulips, Amanda didn't like it that much.", it is supportable (though not 100% must be true) to say, "The presence of tulips is important to Amanda's enjoyment of a bouquet".
Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
62% picked this
Children of the computer generation
Too Strong: cannot
This is speculating something too strong. We know that the computer culture led to more emphasis on simpler, flashier material, but we can't extract some extreme idea like "Today's children are incapable of concentrating on long, unbroken sections of prose."
3% picked this
Children judge books primarily on
Too Strong: primarily
We can support the idea that children's publishers believe that better graphic design can improve the appeal of a book to today's children. But we can't say the extreme idea that graphic design is the #1 thing children look at when judging a book.
2% picked this
The lack of substance of
Out of Scope: popularity
There's no information in the paragraph about how popular any of these books are or aren't, so we can't support any judgments about popularity.
14% picked this

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