Self-study
Support Unlike newspapers in the old days, today's newspapers and televised news programs are full of stories about murders and assaults in our city. ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that to be safe from attack, people should stay home whenever possible. Why? Because news media cover more violent crime than they used to, meaning violent crime has increased dramatically.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes media cover more violent crime because that crime is much more prevalent, and not for any other reason. In addition, he assumes people are less likely to be victims of violent crime when they stay at home.
7.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████
a
Newspapers and televised ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████
This challenges the assumption that violent crime receives more coverage because it’s out of control. Since media today cover crime more comprehensively, an increase in coverage does not necessarily mean an increase in crime.
b
National data show ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ █████
This expands the scope of the conclusion, but provides no reason to question it. It implies people should stay home across the entire country, not just in the author’s city.
c
Police records show ████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████████████
This doesn’t say people are more likely to experience violent crime when they are at home. The author recommends people stick to their homes, not stick to their own neighborhoods when they go out.
d
Murder comprised a ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████
This doesn’t say murder rates have decreased. It’s possible other types of violent crime have simply increased more than the murder rate.
e
News magazines play █ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████
This doesn’t say newspapers and televised news over-report violent crime. News magazines may report the same amount of violent crime, even if that reporting is more important than it used to be.