Some people have maintained that

Answer choices

1. A

   Contradicted8% picked this

   It is a generalization that the argument suggests is no more applicable to less technologically advanced societies than

   The author concedes in the 2nd sentence that this generalization is more applicable to less technologically advanced societies. "This may be true of them, but [it's not true of technologically advanced societies]."

   8%
2. B

   Out of Scope: widespread acceptance3% picked this

   It is a hypothesis for whose widespread acceptance the argument offers

   It's never stated that this claim is widely accepted, nor is the argument ever trying to explain to us why this claim is widely accepted. It's only attributed as the belief of some people. And instead of the author trying to offer an explanation for why some people accept this belief, she is arguing that this belief might apply to technologically primitive societies but not to technologically advanced ones.

   3%
3. C

   Correct76% picked this

   It is a general hypothesis that the argument suggests is inapplicable to societies more dependent for survival upon the introduction of new technologies

   Why this is right

   This answer reflects the concession that this opening claim may apply to technologically primitive societies (who must share their economic resources to survive) but does not apply to technologically advanced societies (who apparently need to be able to test new technologies without the majority's consent). It's certainly a brutal answer because it's making us add in some assumptions, but it's essentially just saying this: The first claim is a general cause/effect claim that the author is saying is inapplicable to societies that are more like "technologically advanced" than "less technologically advanced". They're just swapping out those more obvious labels for the descriptive buzzphrases the argument provided for each type of society.

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

   76%
4. D

   Too Strong: any6% picked this

   It is a contention about the consequences of an economic arrangement that the argument claims is incompatible with

   The author never claimed anything is incompatible with the needs of any society. The author is saying that public ownership of means of production is threatening to one type of society (technologically advanced ones).

   6%
5. E

   Too Strong8% picked this

   It is a generalization about societies that according to the argument is true for any society in which the majority of its citizens does

   Too Strong: is true Illegal Negation Wrong Role: needs to convey Opposing The author was arguing that this generalization is not true for societies that need to test new technologies without the majority's consent impeding that process. This answer is giving us the negation of that, saying that this generalization is true for societies that don't have to worry about the majority impeding new technology. Even if we equated this concept of "don't have to worry about majority impeding new technology" with "less technologically advanced society", we couldn't say that our author ever argued that the first sentence is true for those societies. She said the first sentence "may be true" as a polite, noncommittal concession. The author's purpose is to rebut this first claim, not to agree with it, so we wouldn't call the role of the first claim is to provide a generalization that the author will argue is true.

   8%