Self-study
H. G. Wells's great dramatic novel . ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██████████████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that it’s inappropriate to classify Wells’s book as sci-fi. He supports this by saying that it has something that great dramatic novels have and that sci-fi generally lacks.
Missing Connection
The author concludes that Wells’s book shouldn’t be classified as sci-fi, but his premise tells us nothing about how books should be classified. We know that the book is a great dramatic novel. We also know that it has a feature that sci-fi generally lacks. But why shouldn’t it be classified as sci-fi? Why can’t it be both a great dramatic novel and sci-fi?
To get from his premise to his conclusion, the author must either make the broad assumption that no great dramatic novel can also be sci-fi, or the more specific assumption that a book that has a feature that sci-fi generally lacks shouldn’t be classified as sci-fi.
15.
The argument's conclusion follows logically ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
All novels that ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████
This reiterates the fact that Wells’s book is a great dramatic novel since it contains compelling characters. But (A) doesn’t prove that the book shouldn’t be classified as sci-fi. Why can’t it be both?
b
Novels can always ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████
Even if novels can always be clearly classified into genres, this doesn’t help to prove that Wells’s book shouldn’t be classified as sci-fi. In fact, (B) leaves open the possibility that the book can be clearly classified into the sci-fi genre.
c
A work of ███████ ███████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███████████
The author’s argument isn’t about whether a work of sci-fi can achieve greatness. Instead, it’s about whether Wells’s book should be classified as sci-fi at all. (C) fails to prove that Wells’s book should not be classified as sci-fi.
d
The most important ███████████ ██ █ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████
The author’s argument is about a novel’s classification, not its quality. Wells’s book may have strong characters and thus be high-quality, but this tells us nothing about whether it should be classified as sci-fi.
e
A dramatic novel ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████
We know from the first sentence that Wells’s book is a great dramatic novel. If a dramatic novel cannot be both great and sci-fi, then Wells’s book must not be sci-fi, since it is great. This guarantees the conclusion that the book should not be classified as sci-fi.