Self-study
Faced with a financial crisis, Support Upland University's board of trustees reduced the budget for the university's computer center from last year's $4 million to $1.5 million for the coming year. ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████
Summary
The Upland computer center cannot keep operating for the coming year. It needs $2.5 million to run, and its budget from the university will only be $1.5 million.
Missing Connection
What if the university budget weren’t the sole source of funds for the computer center? For example, it could raise additional money through alumni donations. The center wouldn’t necessarily have to close in that case. Consequently, to guarantee the conclusion, the author must assume that the university budget is the only possible source of funds.
2.
The conclusion of the argument ██ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
The computer center ███ ███ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ████ █████
This doesn’t help the author’s conclusion that the center must close. If money is left over from last year, it could be used to make up this year’s shortfall.
b
The budgets of █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████
We’re only concerned with the computer center, so the budgets of other programs are irrelevant.
c
The computer center ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ █████████
If true, the center must rely only on the funds provided by the university. And we know that those funds are insufficient to keep the center operational. Consequently, (C) guarantees the author’s conclusion that the center must stop operating.
d
No funds from ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████
We already know that the computer center can’t get more funds diverted to it. So whether this is also true for other programs is irrelevant.
e
The board of ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
The board’s beliefs are irrelevant here; what matters is the funding they allocated.