Self-study
Analyst: A recent survey showed that Support although professors of biology who teach but do not pursue research made up one twentieth of all science professors, they were appointed to fewer than one twentieth of all the scientific administrative positions in universities. ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████████████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The analyst hypothesizes that university administrators tend not to choose university professors who do not pursue research for scientific administration positions. This is based on a phenomenon demonstrated by a recent survey: biology professors who don’t pursue research are underrepresented in scientific administrative positions.
Notable Assumptions
The analyst assumes a causal relationship based on a correlation. Specifically, the analyst assumes that the underrepresentation of professors who do not pursue research in scientific administrative positions is caused by their choice not to engage in research.
19.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
In universities there ███ █████ ██████████ ██████████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████████ ██████████████ ██████████
This does not affect the argument. Nonscientific administrative positions are not relevant to, and outside the scope of, the argument.
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.
b
Biologists who do ████████ ████ █ ██████████████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████ █████████ ██ █████████████
This weakens the argument. It attacks the assumption that the professors’ failure to pursue research leads to their underrepresentation in science admin positions (instead of another factor), which implies that those who pursue research would be better represented in these roles.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
c
Biology professors get ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ █████ █████ ██████████
This does not affect the argument. Grant money is not relevant to, and outside the scope of, the argument.
d
Conducting biological research █████ ██ ████ █████████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. The time it takes to conduct research is not relevant to, and outside the scope of, the argument.
e
Biologists who hold ██████████ ██████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ █████████ ███ █ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████████
This does not affect the argument. The argument is concerned with one’s likeliness to be appointed to a scientific administration position in the first place. The time biologists spend in these positions is outside the scope of the argument.