It was misleading

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope2% picked this

   If the chair of the Anthropology Department did not endorse James's proposed recommendations, the Core Curriculum Committee would

   The argument is about whether James's claim of endorsement was misleading, not about whether the Committee will implement the recommendations. Negation test: even if the Committee would implement them anyway without endorsement, James's misleading statement is still misleading. The argument doesn't require this.

   2%
2. B

   Bad Assumption4% picked this

   The chair of the Anthropology Department would have been opposed to any recommendations James proposed to the Core Curriculum Committee other

   The argument doesn't need any claim about how the chair would feel about hypothetical other recommendations. The argument just needs that the actual recommendations James made differed from what she saw. Negation test: even if the chair would have happily endorsed any recommendations James proposed, the conditional endorsement she actually gave was specific to the draft she saw, and James misrepresented it. The argument survives.

   4%
3. C

   Bad Assumption4% picked this

   James thought that the Core Curriculum Committee would implement the proposed recommendations only if they believed that the recommendations had been endorsed by

   This is about James's motivations or strategic thinking. The argument doesn't require any claim about why James said what he said or what he thought the Committee believed. Negation test: even if James didn't care what the Committee thought of the chair's endorsement, his statement could still be misleading. The argument is about the accuracy of his statement, not his strategy.

   4%
4. D

   Bad Assumption2% picked this

   James thought that the chair of the Anthropology Department would have endorsed all of the recommendations that he proposed

   This is about James's expectations of the chair, not about what was actually true. The argument doesn't depend on what James believed the chair would have done; it depends on what the chair actually agreed to (a conditional endorsement) and whether the condition was met. Negation test: even if James didn't expect endorsement of all his recommendations, his statement to the Committee could still be misleading. The argument survives.

   2%
5. E

   Correct87% picked this

   The draft proposal that the chair of the Anthropology Department had seen did not include all of the recommendations in James's proposal

   Why this is right

   This is the assumption the argument needs. The chair's endorsement was conditional: she endorsed only if the draft she saw included all the recommendations James would ultimately make. For James's claim of endorsement to be misleading, that condition must have failed. Negation test: suppose the draft the chair saw did include all the recommendations James ultimately proposed. Then the conditional was satisfied, the chair's endorsement was valid, and James was telling the truth — not being misleading. The conclusion collapses. So the argument requires this assumption.

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

   87%