- Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:55 pm
#98970
Let's just break this whole thing down, kat and bmas!
Our stimulus is about children and animals. It tells us that most children under 6 are egocentric, and it isn't until between ages 6-9 that they are able to understand that animals have their own needs and feelings. The author then draws a conclusion that most children should not have pets until they are at least six years old.
Hey, wait! That's a huge jump. We don't know anything about having pets. Our conclusion makes a leap about what should happen based on what children can understand. The author needs to provide some connection between who should have pets and the knowledge and development of children.
Our question, no surprise, asks us to justify the conclusion. The author didn't bridge the gap, so now we need to. We should start by focusing on what we are looking for. We need an answer choice that tells us that based on their age, most children under 6 shouldn't have pets.
Answer choice (A): Relying on others to take care of pets is not the same as saying children shouldn't have pets. This is not what we are looking for.
Answer choice (B): This is a close one, but it's still not the correct answer choice. This answer choice talks about children who SHOULD have pets, but we want something that addresses when children SHOULDN'T have pets.
Answer choice (C): This is another close one. The answer choice here isn't about if the children should/shouldn't have pets, it's if they do/don't have pets. That's a different conclusion than the one we need to justify. Out it goes!
Answer choice (D): We can eliminate this one because it doesn't do anything to connect the premises to the idea if young kids should own pets.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. This is a bit stronger than what we necessarily needed, but that's ok in this type of question. We need to bridge the gap between the premises and the conclusion. It doesn't matter if the answer choice is stronger than is necessary. It is the only choice that tells us that some children should not own a pet.
Hope that helps!