Watching music videos from the 1970s

Answer choices

1. A

   Weak Conclusion Match10% picked this

   Our view of pre-printing-press literature can never be accurate, because the surviving works of ancient authors are those that were deemed by copyists most

   This does have a premise that sounds like an unrepresentative sample (surviving works aren't a random sample / they're ones that skew towards being interesting). But the conclusion is saying "our view can never be accurate", rather than something more similar like "It would be misleading to infer from surviving works of ancient authors than ancient literature was predominantly interesting".

   10%
2. B

   Bad Conclusion / Premise Match1% picked this

   Our memory of 1960s TV shows could hardly be improved, because so many of the television programs of the

   The conclusion is talking about us having the correct impression, so I would probably stop reading there. There is a sample presented in the evidence, but the sample of shows that still rerun isn't indicated to be unrepresentative. If anything, it's indicated to be representative because "so many of them" still run.

   1%
3. C

   Correct81% picked this

   Future generations' understanding of today's publishing trends will be distorted if they judge by works published in CD-ROM format, since it is primarily publishers

   Why this is right

   If you were to look at works published in CD-ROM and try to generalize about published works during this time period, you'd get a misleading impression, since the works published in CD-ROM format are an atypical sample (primarily computer games materials). Like the original, this presents an atypical sample and warns us against the misleading inference we would be making were we to extrapolate a generalization from that sample.

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

   81%
4. D

   Weak Conclusion Match Bad Premise Match4% picked this

   Our understanding of silent films is incomplete, because few filmmakers of the time realized that the film stock they were

   The conclusion is talking about our impression being incomplete, which is very different from misleading. And the premise doesn't point to an atypical, skewed sample. It just explains why we've lost so many data points. It doesn't characterize the surviving data points as belonging primarily to some atypical group.

   4%
5. E

   Bad Conclusion Match4% picked this

   Our notion of fashion trends will probably be accurate if we rely on TV fashion programs, despite the fact that these programs deliberately select

   This presents an unrepresentative sample (TV fashion is skewed towards more outrageous outfits than normal), but then concludes the opposite of the original argument. Instead of saying, "So you'd get a misleading impression of current fashion if you based it off of TV fashion programs", it concluded "so you'll get an accurate impression".

   4%