Answers (A), (B), and (D) would have been better (I dare say right) if they said something like:
Parents should encourage children to do something only if it doesn't make unhappy.
Parents should encourage children to do only those things that don't lead them to develop a sense of resentment.


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Economist: Machinery firms in this country argue that in order to grow big enough to compete successfully with foreign rivals, the protection that they have been receiving from foreign competition must be extended for several more years. Yet these firms have been receiving protection from foreign competition for the last ten years. If it were possible for protection from foreign competition to enable this country’s machinery firms to grow big enough to compete successfully with foreign rivals, ten years would be a sufficient time frame for this to happen.

Summary

If protection from foreign competition were possible in order to allow domestic machinery firms to successfully compete with foreign machinery firms, ten years would be a sufficient timeframe for this purpose. However domestic machinery firms have had protection from foreign competition for the last ten years, and these firms claim that this protection must be extended for several more years.

Strongly Supported Conclusions

It is not possible that protection from foreign competition will allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough to compete with foreign machinery firms.

A
Protection from foreign competition rarely if ever enables firms to grow big enough to compete with foreign rivals.

The Economist’s argument is limited to machinery firms in the Economist’s country. We don’t know whether protection “rarely” allows firms to grow big enough generally. We only know that protection does not allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough.

B
Ten years is a sufficient time frame for assessing the success of any economic policy.

We don’t know if ten years is sufficient for evaluating any and every economic policy. We only know ten years is sufficient for evaluating one economic policy that applies to domestic machinery firms.

C
None of the machinery firms in the economist’s country has grown significantly over the last ten years.

We don’t know whether or not any machinery firm in the economist’s county has grown “significantly.” We only know that these machinery firms haven’t grown big enough to compete with foreign machinery firms.

D
Most of the machinery firms in the economist’s country will go out of business unless they are protected from foreign competition.

We don’t know whether any of the machinery firms in the Economist’s country will go out of business if these firms are not protected from foreign competition.

E
Protection from foreign competition will not enable machinery firms in the economist’s country to grow big enough to take on foreign rivals.

It is not possible that protection from foreign competition will allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough to compete since these firms have already been receiving protection for ten years.


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Educator: Environmental factors clearly have little effect on whether a teenager will participate in sports. Family life is probably the strongest environmental factor, yet it is common for one teenager in a family to participate in sports enthusiastically while other teenagers in the family are indifferent to sports. Moreover, school programs designed to encourage inactive teenagers to participate in sports are generally ineffective.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that environmental factors have little effect on whether a teenager will participate in sports. This is based on the fact that it’s common for one teenager in a family to participate in sports, but for the other teenagers in the same family to avoid sports. In addition, school programs that try to get inactive teenagers to participate in sports are usually ineffective.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that evidence of the ineffectiveness of certain environmental factors, such as family and school environment, shows that other environmental factors are similarly ineffective. The author also assumes that the family environment is generally similar from one teen to another within the same family.

A
Athletic ability varies, even among siblings, and teenagers who have demonstrable athletic ability are more likely than those who do not to participate in sports.
This strengthens the argument by suggesting difference in athletic ability (which is not an environmental factor) might be the predominant cause of differences in sports participation among members of the same family.
B
Some teenagers, even those in schools that do not have any sports programs, are more enthusiastic about participating in sports than their parents are.
Comparisons of enthusiasm between teens and parents don’t have any clear impact. If anything, (B) might strengthen by showing that teens’ participation is not influenced much by parents’ lower enthuasiasm.
C
Adults’ enthusiasm for participating in sports generally is directly proportional to the extent to which they participated in sports when they were younger.
This tells us about how adults’ enthusiasm relates to the same adults’ enthusiasm when they were younger. But this doesn’t reveal anything about what might have caused their enthusiasm when they were younger.
D
The proportion of teenagers who participate in sports varies greatly from society to society and from decade to decade.
Different societies/decades involve different environments (ex. think about cultures in different countries and times). If environment had little impact, we’d expect sports participation not to vary widely. But it does, suggesting environment has more than little impact.
E
School programs designed to encourage inactive teenagers to participate in sports widely vary in success, with only a few being highly successful.
If anything, this might strengthen the argument by providing additional evidence to question the effectiveness of programs designed to get teens to participate in sports. If only a few are highly successful, maybe it’s just coincidence. The program might not be the cause.

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