Most and Some in Strength Questions.

Jun_hwang

On PT 35 S1 Q15,
Conclusion: We should be skeptical about the magazine’s conclusion.
Premise: The sample is unrepresentative and the question is biased

answer choice B contains Most (the conclusion drawn in most magazine surveys have eventually been disproved.) and JY shared that it provides little bit of support to the argument.

my question is,
is it always safe to assume that MOST provides little bit of support for strengthening question?
how about for SOME?

BinghamtonDave

35-1-13 is a weakening question in the phenomena/hypothesis framework about acquired beliefs. Are we looking at the same question?

Jun_hwang

i edited my post! it's Q15, not 13.

AllezAllez21

I would say that 'most' is certainly stronger than 'some.' I would not say that 'most' always strengthens the argument. You need to look for contextual clues within the stimulus to indicate whether or not 'most' is sufficient to strengthen the argument.

If the argument is about a particular case or a subset of cases, it might not matter that most cases are X, because the particular case in question (or subset) could be small enough that most doesn't impact it. For example, if we are trying to prove that Sparky the dog has a tail, does it really make our point rock solid if we say most dogs have tails? Not really, there are plenty of dogs without tails. We would need more information.

On the other hand, if the conclusion of an argument is relatively weaker, for example it says something like "at least some Ys are X," and the answer choice is like "Most Ys are Z, and all Zs are X," then you've got a much stronger case that 'most is helpful.

Looking at this particular question, it is an except question, where the standard for strengthening, in my opinion, is much lower. The four answers usually in some way plausibly strengthen the argument, even in minor ways, but the one answer that does not strengthen is entirely unrelated to the argument. So, I don't worry so much about how much an answer choice strengthens in an except question as I make sure it is directly related to the conclusion-support relationship. That's really related to LR questions in general: the wrong answers are entirely not impactful of the support-conclusion relationship. They're off topic and irrelevant to the flaw/weakness of the stimulus. I guess the takeaway from that is to first focus more intensely on the support-conclusion relationship before questioning whether or not the use of some or most is relevant.

Jun_hwang

@AllezAllez21 thank you for your response!

Mellow_Z

Another thing to remember - in strengthening/weakening questions, 4 of the 5 answer choices will not strengthen or weaken the argument AT ALL. So the answer will always be the one that provides any support (even if it is the tiniest amount possible)