Self-study
Support High school students who feel that they are not succeeding in school often drop out before graduating and go to work. ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the program to improve high school morale is working. Why? Because students who think they are failing tend to drop out, and the dropout rate last year was much lower than the previous year.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s no other reason last year’s dropout rate was abnormally low or the previous year’s dropout rate was abnormally high. In addition, she assumes a higher school morale makes students more likely to think they’re succeeding, and that there’s no other reason besides the program for morale to have improved.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ ████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
There was a █████████ ████ ██████ █ ████ █████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███ █████
This suggests dropout rates last year were low because there were fewer opportunities for employment. It offers an alternative explanation for the improving dropout rate that doesn’t depend on the morale-boosting program.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
b
The morale of ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████
This doesn’t mean the program to improve morale failed. It’s possible the program improved the morale of some students who entered high school with low morale, and that those students therefore didn’t drop out.
c
As in the █████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ████
This doesn’t mean the change in dropout rate was insignificant. The author does not suggest a dropout rate is high only if more than half of current students drop out.
d
High schools in ███ ████ ███████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███████████
This is not necessarily an incentive for students to stay in school. Students who see themselves struggling may not expect to graduate anyway, making these placement offices for graduates a poor motivator for them.
Failed alternate explanation
Failed alternate explanation
Weaken Qs: Answers that try to introduce an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to explain a different phenomenon.
Strengthen Qs: Answers that try to eliminate an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to eliminate an explanation for a different phenomenon.
e
The antidropout program ███ █████████ █████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████
This is irrelevant. It’s not stated whether schools with the largest dropout rates experienced any improvement—only that the city’s overall dropout rate improved.