Alissa: If, as the mayor says

Answer choices

1. A

   No Support from Either4% picked this

   whether the city will need to cease funding local children's television programming if it continues

   These two people are disagreeing about what we should do in the hypothetical case where we need to pick between museum and TV shows. Neither one of them offers any opinion about whether this eventuality is likely or unlikely. To the extent that they both seem to be implicitly trusting what the mayor says, it seems like they would both agree that the city can't afford to fund both, so if it continues funding one, it will cease funding the other.

   4%
2. B

   No Support from Either1% picked this

   whether the mayor has spoken truthfullly about what will need to happen if the city does not cease

   Just like (A), this is discussing some background issue that neither person comments on. These two people are disagreeing about what we should do if the mayor has spoken truthfully. Neither one of them offers any opinion about whether the mayor has in fact spoken truthfully. To the extent that they both seem to be implicitly trusting what the mayor says, it seems like they would both agree that the mayor is being honest.

   1%
3. C

   Correct73% picked this

   whether the city should cease funding local children's television programming if continuing to fund it would mean that the city would have

   Why this is right

   Alissa would say that, if continuing to fund kids TV would mean that the city would have to cease funding the museum, then we should cease funding kids tv. Greta would say that, if continuing to fund kids TV would mean that the city would have to cease funding the museum, then we should not cease funding kids TV ("we should stop funding the museum not (stop funding) the television programming"). This correct answer ended up testing the superficial, obvious disagreement of "Keep the museum vs. No, keep the kids TV", but they just found a really weird way to structure that debate. The reason this answer is structured as a conditional is that they're arguing about Alissa's first claim, which is a conditional!

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

   73%
4. D

   No Support from Person 120% picked this

   Whether local children's television programming provides a beneficial educational experience to a greater number of children in the city

   Alissa never talks about the audience size of museum vs. kids programming, so we couldn't infer her opinion on this matter.

   20%
5. E

   No Support from Person 22% picked this

   whether the children's museum provides a rich educational experience for those children

   This is Alissa's second claim, which Greta never acknowledged or pushed back against. We have no support for what Greta's opinion is on whether the museum does / doesn't provide a rich educational experience. She may well agree that it does, but still prefer the option of saving TV programming (either because it provides a richer experience or simply because it reaches a bigger audience).

   2%