George: A well-known educator claims

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: experiences of others39% picked this

   He treats his own experience and the experiences of other members of his own family as though they have more weight as evidence than

   George doesn't act like his experiences carry more weight than those of other people. He's just acting like his and his cousin's experiences are enough to falsify a general claim. I can see people talking themselves into this answer by thinking, "Doesn't George realize that he and his cousin are just atypical data points, that are outweighed by a majority of data points that do fit the educator's general claim?" If so, does that mean that he's treating his experience as having more weight than the experiences of other people? That's working too hard to make this answer work. We don't have to interpret George's confusion as, "he thinks his experiences count for more", when we could just think, "George is not too sharp, and doesn't know the difference between someone saying that X makes Y more likely and someone saying X guarantees that Y will always be true."

   39%
2. B

   Not Our Objection1% picked this

   He does not distinguish between the quality and the quantity of the books that adults read to Emory

   If we wanted to dig into the educator's claim, we might want to get more specific about what quantity or quality of book-reading will be more likely to make a difference. But we're just trying to comment on George's flaw, which was as simple as thinking that two counterexamples to a general trend proves that the general trend is not happening.

   1%
3. C

   Not An Objection1% picked this

   He overlooks the well-known fact that not all reading is

   We aren't going to hurt George's argument by saying that "some reading is more relaxing than other reading". We are going to hurt his argument by saying, "So what if you and your cousin are atypical examples? For the most part, being read to as a kid makes one more likely to enjoy reading as an adult."

   1%
4. D

   Out of Scope: most educators2% picked this

   He fails to establish that the claim made by this particular educator accurately reflects the position held by

   We're certainly not complaining that "George, your argument should have established that more than 50% of educators hold the same view as the person you're disagreeing with." If I'm disagreeing with someone who is a NY Yankees fan, I don't have to establish that the thing they said (that I'm objecting to) is an opinion held by 51% or more of Yankees fans.

   2%
5. E

   Correct58% picked this

   He attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with

   Why this is right

   Is he attempting to refute a general claim? Yes. "This claim [ kids who are read to as young children are more likely to enjoy reading when they grow up ] is clearly false." Is his evidence a reference to nonconforming cases? Yes, he and his cousin don't fit that general trend, since the one who was read to doesn't enjoy reading and the one who wasn't read to does enjoy reading. Is the educator's claim consistent with (not contradicted by) these nonconforming cases? Yes. The educator's claim was just "X makes it more likely that Y". That isn't any sort of guarantee, so it definitely tolerates exceptions.

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

   58%