Self-study
Psychologists report that Support children in nine-month schools typically forget a significant amount of schooling during summer breaks. ███ ████ █████████ ████ ████████ █ ████████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ██████ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument
A twelve-month school schedule is better than a nine-month, because children forget much of their schooling over summer, and (supposedly) this means that children won’t forget schooling during shorter breaks.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The flaw lies in the “supposedly” part of the summary. The sub-conclusion (”...this schedule will insure...”) does not follow from the support. The psychologists have reported that there is a memory loss effect during summer break, but that doesn’t mean that this same effect is absent during shorter breaks.
9.
The reasoning above is most ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██
a
relies on an ███████████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███████████
There’s no comparison of academic and nonacademic. The author states that her conclusion is confined only “insofar as academic learning is concerned.”
b
draws on an █████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████
The author draws a distinction between nine-month schedules and twelve-month schedules. However:
- That isn’t arbitrary. It’s relevant to her argument.
- Those aren’t groups.
c
takes for granted, ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████ █ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ████
The author is assuming that a certain undesirable result (forgetting education) is only correlated with one situation (nine-month schedule), and not the other (twelve-month schedule).
d
fails to show ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████████ ███████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████
This isn’t a flaw within the author’s reasoning. When choosing an answer for a Flaw question, we need to have some evidence that their reasoning involved a particular assumption/lack of credibility/etc. There’s no evidence that the psychologists’ data was unrepresentative.
e
claims to accept █ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████
This is descriptively inaccurate. There is no view that the author claims to accept, and then reverses their position on.
The author accepts the psychologists’ reporting, and builds an argument around so that she can recommend option B (twelve-month) over option A (nine-month).