#22 - Most students are bored by history courses as they are

[Basia W]

Good afternoon,

I got this question incorrect but I just wanted to make sure I understood why: for answer choice C due to the "without" would this diagram properly as "it is not possible to recount the lives of historical figures without referring to dates and statistics" and then using the negation technique make this into "it is possible to recount the lives of historical figures?"

Is this why this is irrelevant?

Thank you,

Best,

Basia

[Adam Tyson]

On this question I would not worry too much about the conditional nature of that answer choice, but more holistically on the imnpact of the negation - "it's impossible to recount their lives without referring to dates and stats." What impact does that have? Could you still focus primarily on recounting lives and spend very little time on dates and stats? Sure you could. That's why that answer is not an assumption of the argument - because the negation of that answer doesn't destroy or even weaken the conclusion about what constitutes the best way to teach history.

I played around a bit with diagramming the answer, and it was a real challenge to wrap my head around. That's why I say not to worry about it, especially since the argument itself isn't conditional but causal. Focus on that negation and its impact and you're there without any mind-bending conditional analysis required.

Hope that helps!

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello,

So D is really throwing me off.

The conclusion is that : Best way to teach history spend most CT rec. lives of hist. figures and very little on dates and stats.

So when I negated D is got: it is not compatible with the attainable goals of teaching history to spend most class time recounting the lives of historical figures. Doesn't this also weaken the conclusion?

Thankyou
Sarah

[Robert Carroll]

Sarah,

The negation of answer choice (D) does weaken the argument. That means answer choice (D) is an assumption that is needed for the argument. Be careful, though! The question is as follows:

"Each of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends EXCEPT"

In other words, the 4 incorrect answer choices are assumptions the argument needs. Thus, your reasoning should lead you to the conclusion that answer choice (D) is incorrect, because its negation weakens the conclusion. This shows it's an assumption on which the argument depends.

The one correct answer choice will be the one thing the argument did not need to assume.

Robert Carroll