Self-study
Support The Industrial Revolution decreased the value that society conferred on physical labor because it enabled unskilled workers to quickly produce goods that formerly took skilled craftspeople long periods of time to produce. ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████████████ ███████████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████████████ █ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the most important intellectual skills in society will be devalued by new technology. This is because computations that used to take experts a long time to complete can now be performed by high school students on computers. The author also draws an analogy to the Industrial Revolution, where technology decreased the value of certain skills due to rapid production.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that computational skills mentioned are some of the most “intellectual skills” in society.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Much industrial machinery ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██████████
It does not matter who/what designs industrial machinery. This argument is focused on the development of new technologies devaluing highly prized skills
b
Before electronic data-processing ███████████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ █████████████
While this suggests that there were past ways to speed up computations, it does not address whether prized intellectual skills will be devalued.
c
On average, skilled ██████████████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████████
It does not matter when skilled mathematicians are in their prime. This claim about age does not impact the argument’s reasoning at all
d
The intellectual skills ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████████ █████
This directly challenges the author’s assumption that computational skills are among the most valued intellectual skills. If this is false, the second premise is severely weakened.
e
Electronic data-processing technology ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ████
While this showcases the benefit of technology, it does not address whether valued skills will be devalued.