Self-study
Barnes: Support The two newest employees at this company have salaries that are too high for the simple tasks normally assigned to new employees and Support duties that are too complex for inexperienced workers. ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████
Summary
Barnes argues that these new employees should have their salaries reduced and duties simplified. This is because their salaries are higher than what would normally be paid for new employees and their duties are too complex for inexperienced workers.
Notable Assumptions
Barnes provides general information about the typical pay for employees assigned simple tasks and the difficulties that inexperienced workers may encounter in performing the relevant duties. However, he never establishes what tasks these two new workers have been assigned, nor what experience levels they have. In order to draw this conclusion, Barnes needs to assume:
1 - These workers have been assigned simple tasks.
2 - These workers are inexperienced.
5.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ████████
a
The duties of ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
It doesn’t matter how the complexity of the workers’ duties compares to those of other workers. For Barnes’s argument, it only matters if they’re too complex for inexperienced workers.
b
It is because ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████
Barnes’s claim is simply that the employees’ salaries should be reduced because they’re too high for inexperienced employees, and that the complexity of their tasks should be reduced because they're too complex for inexperienced employees; it doesn’t matter why the current salaries are high. Even if the salaries were not causally connected to the kind of tasks they're assigned, the author could still argue that their tasks are more complex than what is given to new employees and that their salaries are too high for what is given to new employees.
c
The two newest █████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████████
This must be true in order for the conclusion to follow. If these two new workers were experienced, then their duties wouldn’t necessarily be too complex for them.
d
Barnes was not █████ ██ █ ███████████████████ ████████ ███████
Barnes’s personal circumstances are irrelevant to what’s logically required for his conclusion. The author's own salary is irrelevant to the argument she makes about the two newest employees.
e
The salaries of ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █ ███████ █████ ██ ███████████
It doesn’t matter how the employees’ salaries compare to those of workers at other companies. For Barnes’s argument, it only matters that their salaries are higher than what is proper for new employees assigned simple tasks.