Self-study
In order to pressure the government of Country S to become less repressive, some legislators in Country R want to ban all exports from R to S. █████████ ██ █ ████ ███████████ █████████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███ █ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████ █████████████████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████
Summary
Telecom manufacturers in R argue that their products should be exempted from a ban on exports to S (which is meant to push S to become less repressive). In support, the manufacturers claim that when telecom equipment is widely available to a country’s population, that country cannot remain repressive.
Notable Assumptions
The manufacturers’ argument that exporting their equipment to S will help to make S less repressive requires the assumption that telecom equipment exported to S will be widely available to S’s population. Without this assumption, there would be no link between the manufacturers’ premise and their conclusion.
21.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████████
a
The government of █ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████
It’s not necessary to the argument that anything has recently changed about S’s import conditions. For example, if S had always allowed lots of telecom imports, that wouldn’t undermine the argument.
b
The telecommunication equipment ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ █ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██
This avoids one scenario where telecom equipment would not be available to the population of S. In other words, this is part of the broader assumption that S’s population will actually receive the exported equipment—which is necessary to the argument.
c
A majority of ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ █████████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██
Whatever the members of R’s legislature think about this plan is totally independent of the manufacturers’ argument. In other words, this is irrelevant.
d
Of all exports ████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████████████ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███████████
The manufacturers’ point is simply that exporting telecom equipment would help make S less repressive. It’s not necessary that it would be the most effective way to do so.
e
Without pressure from ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████████
The manufacturers never claim that their plan (or any other pressure from R) is necessary to make S less repressive, only that it would be helpful. So, this isn’t necessary.