Self-study
Support Thirty years ago, the percentage of the British people who vacationed in foreign countries was very small compared with the large percentage of the British population who travel abroad for vacations now. ███████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████
Summary
The author concludes that British people today have, on average, more money to spend on vacations than they did 30 years ago.
Why? Because today, a larger % of British people travel abroad for vacations compared to 30 years ago. In addition, foreign travel has always been expensive from Britain. (The author believes this disparity in foreign travel rate must be explained by the theory that British people today have more money to spend on vacations.)
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s no other reasonable explanation for the change in % of British people traveling abroad for vacations. This overlooks the possibility that, for example, a higher % of people travel abroad because foreign vacations have culturally become more popular. Or maybe lack of technology and other developmental factors in foreign countries made foreign travel less popular 30 years ago. The author must assume that these other explanations aren’t the true reason for the different in foreign travel rates.
14.
The argument requires assuming which ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
If foreign travel ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████
(A) goes in a direction opposite to the author’s position. The author assumes that if foreign travel had been less expensive 30 years ago, British people would have been more likely to take vacations abroad. It doesn’t make sense for the author to assume that British people still wouldn’t have had enough money to vacation abroad, because the author believes that expense of travel is what was making them less likely to travel before. Reduced expense would, in the author’s mind, make foreign travel more likely. In any case, the argument is about comparative proportions of people who vacation abroad. That doesn’t require an assumption that British people, as a whole, would have had enough money or would not have had enough money to travel abroad.
b
If travel to ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██████████
The argument doesn’t concern people outside Britain traveling to Britain for vacation.
c
If the percentage ██ ███████ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████████
Not necessary, because the author doesn’t have to have an opinion about the domestic vacation practices of British people. We know a smaller % of the British people traveled abroad for vacations 30 years ago. That doesn’t imply that greater % than today traveled domestically; perhaps people just took fewer vacations generally 30 years ago.
d
If more of ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███
Necessary, because if it were not true — if more British people of 30 years ago would NOT have traveled abroad even if they had enough money to vacation abroad — that suggests the true explanation for the lower % who traveled abroad 30 years ago wasn’t a lack of money to spend on vacations. It raises the possibility that there were other factors leading to lower foreign travel — perhaps cultural issues or conflict in foreign countries, etc.
e
If British people ███ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████
Not necessary, because the argument concludes merely that British people have “more money to spend on vacations now” compared to 30 years ago. This doesn’t commit the author to an opinion about what occurs if British people are “wealthier.” There’s a difference beteween having more money available for vacations and being wealthier. Someone can have more money available for vacations because housing expenses or food expenses have declined; this doesn’t necessarily imply someone is “wealthier.”