Self-study
The effects of technology on language and the effects of language on culture as a whole are profound and complex. ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ █ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████
Summary
Technology has effects on language, and language has effects on culture. For example, the telegraph, telephone, and television have all changed how people speak to each other. Currently, email has caused a widespread loosening of language usage rules. This loosening has caused relationships between people to be more causal than ever before.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
New communication technologies can cause the relationships between people to change.
6.
Which one of the following ████████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████
a
Technology can adversely ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ███████
This answer is unsupported. The author never judges whether the changes mentioned are "adverse." We cannot assume that a change in language use or in relationships between people is adverse.
b
Changes in communication █████ ███ █████ █████████████ █████████████ ██ ███████
This answer is strongly supported. The stimulus says that email, by loosening language rules, caused relationships to become more casual. This is a concrete example where a change in communication media led to a change in interpersonal relationships.
c
A decrease in ██████████ ██████████████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ █████████████ ███████████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus whether language changes ever lead to technological changes. The relationship presented in the stimulus is the opposite, that technological changes cause language-usage changes.
d
A widespread loosening ██ ██████ █████ ██████████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus whether communication has improved or not. We only know that communication has changed. Also, the author never judges language-usage rules as "overly rigid."
e
Changes in interpersonal █████████████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
This answer is unsupported. If anything, the opposite relationship is presented in the stimulus: the way people speak to one another can cause changes in interpersonal relationships. The opposite is never discussed.