Self-study
A professor of business placed a case-study assignment for her class on her university's computer network. ███ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The availability of online books won't make printed versions unnecessary. This is demonstrated by the fact that in a class, most students chose to print an assignment sheet instead of reading it online, where it was originally made available.
Notable Assumptions
The author makes a conclusion about books from premises about an assignment—in other words, the author assumes that there are enough similarities between books and assignments to draw a conclusion. A good answer choice will help bridge this gap. Additionally, the author assumes that the observed occurrence in an academic setting is generalizable.
23.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Several colleagues of ███ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████████████ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
While this answer choice strengthens the evidence, it fails to support the relationship between the premise and conclusion (i.e., the argument). The author makes a jump from a premise about an assignment to a conclusion about books—this doesn’t fill that gap.
b
Studies consistently show ████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
This strengthens the argument by substantiating the author’s assumption that students will print out books in addition to assignments. (B) says after a certain length people will print the reading material, strengthening the relationship between the premise and conclusion.
c
Some people get ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. The word “some” could mean just one or two people—one person having vision issues due to computer screens doesn’t affect our argument at all.
d
Scanning technology is ████ █████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. While it may be true that online books would be full of errors if they are not carefully read through, there is no reason for us to believe that they aren’t carefully read through every time.
e
Books on cassette ████ ████ ████ █ █████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████
This does not affect the argument. The relative popularity between books on cassette tape and their printed version tells us nothing about the relationship between books delivered via computer and their printed versions.