Self-study
Professor: Support Each government should do all that it can to improve the well-being of all the children in the society it governs. ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ██ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that governments should subsidize high-quality day care. Why? Because governments should do everything possible to improve children’s well-being, and some families won’t get this day care without subsidies.
Notable Assumptions
The author relies on the premise that governments should do everything possible to improve children’s well-being. But the conclusion that they should subsidize day care doesn’t necessarily follow from that. Do we know that day care is the best option for children? What if other activities, like reading with a parent or playing outdoors, are better for their well-being?
Therefore, the author must assume, at least, that high-quality day care can benefit children.
20.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████████
a
Only governments that █████████ ████████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███████
The negation is: some governments that don’t subsidize day care are interested in children’s well-being. This doesn’t contradict the argument. The author might agree that those governments care about children’s welfare, but believe they’re not using the best means to promote it.
b
Government subsidy of ████████████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████
The argument is about benefits to children, not to adults, so this is irrelevant.
c
High-quality day care ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███
The professor’s point is that families of all income levels should have access to high-quality day care, so limiting the subsidies is clearly not essential to his argument.
d
At least some ████████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ███ █████
The negation is: no children would benefit from high-quality day care. If that were the case, the professor’s argument would provide no grounds for subsidizing day care. Therefore, this assumption is necessary to the argument.
e
Government is a ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████
The professor’s argument is for the government to finance day care, not necessarily to administer it. For example, he could suggest that the government provide families with vouchers to receive day care from private businesses.