Self-study
Educator: Conclusion Environmental factors clearly have little effect on whether a teenager will participate in sports. ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████████████ █████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that environmental factors have little effect on whether a teenager will participate in sports. This is based on the fact that it’s common for one teenager in a family to participate in sports, but for the other teenagers in the same family to avoid sports. In addition, school programs that try to get inactive teenagers to participate in sports are usually ineffective.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that evidence of the ineffectiveness of certain environmental factors, such as family and school environment, shows that other environmental factors are similarly ineffective. The author also assumes that the family environment is generally similar from one teen to another within the same family.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████
a
Athletic ability varies, ████ █████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ ███████
This strengthens the argument by suggesting difference in athletic ability (which is not an environmental factor) might be the predominant cause of differences in sports participation among members of the same family.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
Some teenagers, even █████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ████ ████████████ █████ █████████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ███████ ████
Comparisons of enthusiasm between teens and parents don’t have any clear impact. Nothing suggests that this difference is due to environmental factors.
c
Adults' enthusiasm for █████████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ████████
This tells us about how adults’ enthusiasm relates to the same adults’ enthusiasm when they were younger. But this doesn’t reveal anything about what might have caused their enthusiasm when they were younger.
d
The proportion of █████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████
Different societies/decades involve different environments (ex. think about cultures in different countries and times). If environment had little impact, we’d expect sports participation not to vary widely. But it does, suggesting environment has more than little impact.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
School programs designed ██ █████████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ █ ███ █████ ██████ ███████████
If anything, this might strengthen the argument by providing additional evidence to question the effectiveness of programs designed to get teens to participate in sports. If only a few are highly successful, maybe it’s just coincidence. The program might not be the cause.