Shy adolescents often devote themselves

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope2% picked this

   Eventually, shy adolescents are going to want a wider circle of friends than is provided

   Out of Scope: wider circle of friends This author never mentions anything resembling "quitting on a hobby because you want a wider circle of friends". It mentions "quitting on a hobby because lost interest". That's it.

   2%
2. B

   Correct62% picked this

   No successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness ever intensifies

   Why this is right

   This sounds very strong, but it's conditional, so we should consider how it looks and ask ourselves whether the author made this move: Successful strategy for ? never intensifies overcoming adolesc lone that loneliness It seems like our author did make this move, in contrapositive form. He goes from saying, "Strategy X may exacerbate (intensify) that loneliness. Thus, it is not a successful strategy." The easiest way to deal with conditional answers is to diagram them (mentally or physically) and see if they match the author's thinking. The other move we could potentially deploy here is the Negation Test. If we negate this, does it weaken? some successful strategies for overcoming adolescent loneliness do sometimes intensify that loneliness Yes it does. It creates some doubt about the author's conclusion / final move.

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

   62%
3. C

   Too Strong: if / will10% picked this

   Shy adolescents will lose interest in their hobbies if they do not make friends through their

   The author talked about possibly making friends as one develops a hobby (Sometimes it happens). This answer accuses the author of having committed to the extreme idea that "if you don't make friends, it's a 100% guarantee you'll lose interest!"

   10%
4. D

   Relative vs. Absolute18% picked this

   Some other strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness is generally more successful than is developing

   This seems extremely tempting in a common sense way. If someone is saying, "X isn't a successful strategy for doing Y", we would think they must have some preferred way of doing Y. But that's not actually logically implied. You might tell me about your strategy for immortality (avoid carbs). I can correctly conclude, "avoiding all carbs is not a successful strategy for overcoming mortality". That doesn't mean that I'm assuming some other strategy for overcoming mortality is generally more successful than 'avoiding carbs'. Because it's possible that I just don't think there are any successful strategies for overcoming mortality. This argument is about whether or not X is a successful strategy (absolute language). This answer is about whether or not X is less successful than some other strategy (relative language).

   18%
5. E

   Too Strong: mainly because8% picked this

   Shy adolescents devote themselves to hobbies mainly because they want to

   The author, if anything, said that shy teens develop hobbies mainly because they want to distract themselves from the loneliness caused by their shyness. She happens to mention that sometimes they make friends, but she doesn't amplify it to the level of this answer choice (the main reason they developed the hobby in the first place).

   8%