Editorial: The structure of the

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: Children Forgetting3% picked this

   During long breaks children have a tendency to forget what they

   This answer would strengthen, if true, because it gives another reason why getting rid of long breaks could be good. But the author doesn't need this to be true. If we negate this and say, "children don't have a tendency to forget what they've learned", that doesn't hurt the argument. The author would just say, "Sure. I never said we should get rid of long breaks because kids were forgetting what they've learned. I said get rid of it because most of them don't need to run home to the farm."

   3%
2. B

   Weakens1% picked this

   Children of farmers need to continue observing a school calendar made up of periods of study

   This was one of our objections -- hey, what's going to happen to those kids that do still need to get home to the farm? Authors never assume something that hurts their argument. If this said, "Children of farmers do not any longer need the long breaks", that would be a decent answer.

   1%
3. C

   Out of Scope2% picked this

   Long breaks in the school calendar should be replaced with breaks that are no longer

   Out of Scope: Average Vacations Too Strong: No Longer This is a reasonable suggestion, but it's not necessary for the author to have this opinion. She's just telling us we should remove long breaks. She hasn't said anything about what we should replace it with. So we can't assume that she holds this specific position in which the maximum of length of any new break is no longer than the average of all workers' vacations.

   2%
4. D

   Too Strong: Serves Interests3% picked this

   A change in the present school calendar that shortened breaks would serve the interests

   The author is selling us this new change on the basis that it would serve the interests of the majority of kids that do not live an agricultural life. She's not necessarily assuming that this plan will be better for farm kids or agricultural life, in general. If the effects of this plan were neutral to agricultural life, her argument would still work. Even if the effect of this plan were negative, she could potentially argue that it's worth inconveniencing agricultural life for the sake of the majority of children.

   3%
5. E

   Correct91% picked this

   A school calendar made up of periods of study without long breaks would serve the interests of children more than a

   Why this is right

   This is linking the language from right before the Therefore to language right after it. When I say, "Sheila likes spicy foods. Thus, she should go to Jose's Tacos", we know the argument is assuming that Jose's Tacos has some spicy food. Here they said, "We can make changes that serve the interests of children. Therefore, long calendar breaks should be removed". That indicates that the author assumes that removing long calendar breaks would serve the interests of children. If we negated this, it would sound like an Objection (as every correct answer on Necessary Assumption should): Hey, author --- a school calendar without long breaks does not serve the interests of children better than a calendar with long breaks.

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

   91%