Self-study
Productivity is average output per worker per unit of time. ████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that high-tech equipment is not necessary for a workplace to have high productivity. He supports this by saying that in order to have high productivity, adequate training for one’s workers is necessary.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author’s conclusion about high-tech equipment is unsupported. He never mentioned high-tech equipment anywhere in the stimulus, yet draws a conclusion about it. The author should have explained high-tech equipment’s relationship to adequate training and high productivity in order to support his conclusion. He never ruled out the possibility that adequate training is dependent on high-tech equipment. If this were the case, one could draw the conclusion that high productivity was also dependent on high-tech equipment, which would contradict the author’s conclusion.
20.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
confuses a stated ███████████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████████ ████ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████████
This answer choice does not apply because the author never provided sufficient or necessary conditions for high-tech equipment. Instead, in his conclusion, he ruled out high productivity as being a sufficient condition for high-tech equipment.
b
ignores the possibility ████ ██████ █████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████
If this were true, the argument would lead to the conclusion that high productivity → high-tech equipment, which contradicts the author’s conclusion. By not ruling out the possibility that adequate training depends on high-tech equipment, the author’s argument is unsupported.
c
overlooks the fact ████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████████████
The desirability of increased productivity is irrelevant to this argument. The author discusses what things are necessary for high productivity, not when increased productivity might be good or bad for a business.
d
presumes without giving █████████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ████████████
The author never assumes this, but instead says almost the opposite: that high productivity depends on adequate training. Additionally, we don’t know that educating workers is the same as providing adequate training, or that high productivity is the same as increased productivity.
e
presumes without giving █████████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████████
The author presumes without justification that adequate training is not dependent on high-tech equipment, not that high-tech equipment cannot increase productivity. Increases in productivity are also not the same as the high productivity discussed by the author.