Self-study
Support Productivity growth in industrialized nations has dropped substantially since computer technology became widespread in the 1960s and 1970s. ████████████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███
Summarize Argument
Increasing reliance on computers probably doesn’t help productivity growth for any given business. The support for this is a set of correlations: since computers became widespread, productivity growth as a whole has dropped, especially for those industries that most rely on computers.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that what’s true of whole industries is also true of any given business. But there could be variation among individual businesses within those industries.
He also assumes that reliance on computers isn’t actually keeping productivity losses from being even worse. But it’s possible computers are helping the situation, and productivity growth in computer-heavy industries is dropping for unrelated reasons.
The right answer must suggest that increasing reliance on computers actually does help productivity growth for individual businesses.
19.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
The industries that ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████████ ████ ████ █████████████ ████████ █████ ████████████ ███████
This helps explain why those industries have productivity issues, but it leaves the role of computers unanswered. It doesn’t suggest that computers might actually help improve the situation.
b
Productivity growth in ████ ████ ██████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ █████████████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██████
This isn’t a useful correlation. For one thing, we don’t know whether these less industrialized nations were also increasing their reliance on computers. If they were, (B) would actually strengthen the argument, as it shows the drop in productivity growth is even more extensive.
c
Productivity growth in ██████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████████
Do these industries involve businesses that have increased their reliance on computer technology? And if so, what was the effect, if any, on productivity for those particular businesses that did? Without knowing this, we cannot say what effect (C) has on the argument.
d
Within any given █████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████████
This suggests that increased reliance on computers does improve productivity, and prevents the industry-wide trends in productivity losses from being even worse. It also challenges the assumption that what’s generally true of whole industries is true of any business.
e
Within the next ███ ██████ ██████ █████████████ ████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████████
This is about what might be true in the future, but the author’s conclusion is only interested in the situation to date. The promise that computers will probably improve productivity down the road says nothing about whether computers have managed to improve productivity to date.