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 Steven Palmer
PowerScore Staff
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  • Joined: Feb 21, 2017
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#35765
Hi Ann,

I don't quite think that you're getting stuck on the diagramming, but more on how the negated answer choices affect the conditional statement described in the stimulus.

The stimulus concludes that the only way to make North American children fit is by having them participate in calisthenics (fit :arrow: calisthenics).

Answer choice (A) tells us: All children can be made physically fit by daily calisthenics. The negation here, as you said, is that not all children can be made fit by calisthenics. The conclusion in the stimulus is that the requirement for these kids to get fit is calisthenics, so it's okay if some kids won't get fit by doing calisthenics. The stimulus did not say "every single kid who does calisthenics will become fit" or anything like that, just that, based on Europe, calisthenics are one requirement for fitness. Negating (A) simply tells us that there are more requirements, which the author of the stimulus would agree with.

Answer choice (D) tells us: School calisthenics are an indispensable factor in European children's superior physical fitness. The negation, as you said, is that calisthenics actually are not an indispensable factor to these European kids' fitness. Here, indispensable is essentially a synonym for "necessary". So, our conclusion says, in so many words, that calisthenics are necessary for fitness. The negation of (D) says that calisthenics are not a necessity to fitness, which is completely incompatible with the stimulus. Thus, (D) is the right answer.

Hope this helps!
Steven
 niki
  • Posts: 16
  • Joined: Aug 13, 2017
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#39179
Hi,

I saw this more as a conditional argument rather than a causal one.

My reasoning being that it states "North American children can be made physically fit ONLY IF they participate in school calisthenics..."

As such, I decided that participating in school calisthenics is the necessary condition and that the assumption is that it is NECESSARY for the conclusion to make sense.

This allowed me to select D right away.

Was this by fluke or was this a correct way of reaching the answer choice?

Thanks.
 AthenaDalton
PowerScore Staff
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#39432
Hi Niki,

Your reasoning here was correct. Nicely done. :)

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