Columnist: George Orwell’s book 1984

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact14% picked this

   How many books had each person

   There's no version of this answer that weakens the argument. Whether someone has read 1 book or 1,000 books, if they say that 1984 is the one that had the most influence on their lives, they still count as a data point in the author's tally of "a great number of readers".

   14%
2. B

   Correct49% picked this

   How many people chose books other

   Why this is right

   Here, we can think of potential answers that weaken the argument. If we say that 990 people chose books other than 1984, then only 10 people chose 1984, and that would make it hard for the author to say that a great number of readers have been influenced by this book. 10 out of 1000? That's 1% of the readers. If you're thinking, "Yeah, but if 1984 only got 10 votes, then it wouldn't be the 2nd most frequently chosen book." It still could be. It's possible that almost everyone chose the Bible. 1. Bible (988 votes) 2. 1984 (10 votes) 3. Atlas Shrugged (1 vote) 4. If it Happened (1 vote) It's also possible that like 500 different books each only got 1 vote, 100 or so got 2 votes, and 1984 ranks ahead of all of them with 10 votes.

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

   49%
3. C

   No Impact16% picked this

   How many people read the columnist’s

   Whether it's 1000 people (the minimum, given the survey) or 1 million people, it would have no effect on the conclusion, since the author is assuming this sample of 1000 readers is roughly representative of the paper's overall reader base. This sample could be untrustworthy, but this answer choice isn't addressing that possibility. That would sound more like, "Are the people who answer a survey similar to the typical reader?"

   16%
4. D

   No Impact2% picked this

   How many books by George Orwell other than 1984

   The author isn't saying that George Orwell has had a big influence on the paper's readers, just Orwell's 1984. Whether that's the only book Orwell wrote or the 500th book wouldn't make any difference to the argument, since 1984 is the book ranked 2nd.

   2%
5. E

   Weaker than Correct Answer19% picked this

   How many of those surveyed had actually read the books

   You could definitely make the argument sound a little wacky if you said that "zero of the people surveyed have actually read the books they chose". However, that would only weaken the argument if we thought that, "you need to read a book in order for the book to have much influence on you." We all know (or are) people whose lives have been influenced a lot by the Bible, and there's a good chance they (or we) have not actually read the Bible. Similarly, most of us are familiar with the gist of what 1984 is about and we're influenced enough by it to say intelligent-sounding stuff on Twitter like, "Jeez ... looks like Orwell was right about Big Brother watching our every move", even though we've never actually read 1984. So answering "0 people have actually read the book" would do less weakening to the author's claim that "a great number of readers have been influenced by this book" than would saying "995 out of 1000 people voted for a book other than 1984."

   19%