Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S4 · Q20 Historian: Radio drama requires

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Historian: Radio drama requires its listeners to think about what they hear, picturing for themselves such dramatic elements as characters' physical appearances and spatial relationships.

Evidence

Radio drama requires its listeners to think about what they hear, picturing for themselves such dramatic elements as characters physical appearances and spatial relationships.

Earlier generations, for whom radio drama was the dominant form of popular entertainment, regularly exercised their imaginations.

Conclusion

Today's generation of television viewers do so [regularly exercise their imaginations] less frequently.

Evaluate

The argument's conclusion is too strong. Without knowing everything else that has changed for today's generation, it's not possible to say how much more or less today's generation exercises their imaginations While it may be true that television provides less opportunity to exercise one's imagination, it could also be true that other activities more than compensate for any loss that resulted from the switch from radio to television.

20.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the historian's argument?

  1. People spend as much time

    Weakens

    If television provides even a small opportunity to exercise one's imagination, this could make it possible that today's generation exercise their imaginations as much or more than earlier generations.

    6% picked this

  2. The more familiar a form

    Too Strong

    This is a relative relationship that the argument does not require. The argument never actually addressed how familiar each form of popular entertainment was before or is today.

    3% picked this

  3. Because it inhibits the development

    Out of Scope

    The desirability of a form of entertainment is not relevant to the argument.

    1% picked this

  4. Correct

    For today's generation of television

    Why this is right

    This defends the argument from a possibility that would destroy the argument's reasoning. If something did fill the gap left by radio, then today's generation would not necessarily exercise their imaginations less frequently.

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

    54% picked this

  5. Television drama does not require

    Too Strong

    It's too strong to say that viewers don't have to think about what they see when they watch TV drama. The salient comparison in the argument is about imaginative thinking. Radio forces you to think about what a scene or character looks like. You have to imagine what it looks like. With TV, you don't have to imagine what it looks like, but you still might have to think. After all, you still have to process dialogue. You might think about what's coming next in the story. You might have to think about information you learned in past episodes. If this answer said, "TV drama does not require its viewers to do as much imaginative thinking as radio does", it would be fine.

    36% picked this

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