Self-study
James: Many people claim that the voting public is unable to evaluate complex campaign issues. ███ ██████████ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████
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Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
Maria hypothesizes that Reade's advantage in the polls isn't because Reade discusses complex campaign issues. Instead, it's just because voters think Reade is the most competent and trustworthy candidate.
Notable Assumptions
Maria assumes that voters don't find Reade to be competent and trustworthy because of Reade's positions on complex campaign issues. She also assumes that a candidate's perspective on complex campaign issues isn't more important to voters than that candidate's appearance of competence and trustworthiness.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████
a
Reade's opponents are ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████
Even if they’re discussing these issues, voters may evaluate their stances to be inferior to Reade’s. We need something that tells us voters care less about such discussions than they care about competence and trustworthiness.
b
Reade's opponents charge ████ █████ ██████████████ ███████ ████████ ███████
We don’t care what Reade’s opponents think, since we’re trying to explain why Reade is ahead in the polls. We’re more interested in what Reade's supporters find appealing.
c
Polling data show ████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████
We don’t care what will happen to Reade’s popularity later on. Maria is making an argument about what factors contribute to Reade's current lead.
d
Polling data show ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████
Since voters can’t identify Reade’s positions on campaign issues, they evidently haven’t been paying too much attention to those issues. This supports the idea that Reade must be ahead in the polls for some other reason, such as the one Maria gives.
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
Polling data show ████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████████
First, we have no idea how many "some" means here, so we have no idea if this represents voters in general. Second, even if it did, this still doesn't tell us if that's the main reason for voters' support of Reade.