Self-study
Widespread use of the Internet has led to an increase in certain crimes such as information theft and to new crimes like hacking. ████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███ █████████
Objective: Build the Premise → Conclusion Bridge
The author advocates for more education on the ethics of Internet use to reduce crimes like information theft and hacking. Why should we take this approach? Because people feel a lack of moral responsibility for their actions online, which leads them to more readily harm others over the Internet.
To justify the reasoning, we're looking for a premise-to-conclusion bridge that fills in a gap in the argument. In this case, there are two gaps we could address. First, the author assumes that we should take steps to reduce the occurrence of Internet crimes. Second, even taking for granted that fixing the issue is worthwhile, the author doesn't explain how ethical education will help to fix the lack of moral responsibility people experience on the Internet.
The correct answer needs to bridge at least one of those gaps. It could be worded in a variety of different ways, but in some form it will better connect the author's premises and conclusion. An answer that bridges the first gap would tell us that it is actually important to reduce the occurrence of Internet crimes. To bridge the second gap, the correct answer would confirm that ethical education increases people’s feelings of moral responsibility on the Internet.
8.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Education about the ███████ ███ ██ █ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ████
The Internet is the tool in question, so this affirms the author's assumption that ethical education would increase people's sense of moral responsibility on the Internet. That bridges a gap in the argument to better justify the conclusion that ethical education would be an effective way to fix the problems caused by that lack of responsibility.
b
When new technologies ███████ ███████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██ █████ █████████████
This leads to the wrong conclusion, so doesn't justify the argument. The author doesn’t claim that new ethical guidelines need to be formulated, just that more people should be educated on Internet ethics—which means acting on ethical guidelines. This still doesn't tell us that it's important to take action based on ethical guidelines, nor that education would be an effective approach—so it doesn't help bridge to our conclusion.
c
The more educated ████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ██ ███████
This actually undermines the author's conclusion. The author wants ethical education to help solve the problem of Internet crime, not make it worse. This principle points in exactly the opposite direction, which means it doesn't justify the argument at all.
d
People feel morally ███████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████
This provides a necessary condition for feeling moral constraint, but that just tells us that people won't feel constrained from actions that don't harm others. This still doesn't suggest that ethical education would actually cause people to feel more morally constrained, so it doesn't help lead us to the conclusion.
e
People who harm ██████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████
In other words, people who commit harm over the Internet are culpable—but that doesn't help with the argument, which is about preventing those harms in the first place. This principle doesn't get us to the author’s recommendation to use ethical education to help fix the problem: it doesn't say we should be doing anything based on culpability, nor that education would be a good approach.