Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author recommends that we make available to middle-level managers a time management training seminar in order to improve their productivity. This is based on a report by consultants that the most efficient managers have excellent time management skills.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that excellent time management skills is the cause of the most efficient managers’ level of efficiency. The author assumes that there isn’t some other explanation for the association between efficiency and time management skills observed in managers.
A
The consultants use the same criteria to evaluate managers’ efficiency as they do to evaluate their time management skills.
(A) suggests that the purported correlation between efficiency and time management among managers doesn’t actually measure a meaningful relationship. The consultants aren’t measuring the connection between two different qualities.
B
Successful time management is more dependent on motivation than on good technique.
This provides a reason to think a seminar training managers on time management techniques is less likely to be successful.
C
Most managers at other companies who have attended time management seminars are still unproductive.
This provides a reason to think attendance at time management seminars is less likely to have a significant impact on productivity.
D
Most managers who are already efficient do not need to improve their productivity.
The author recommends that we make a seminar available. If some managers don’t need it, they don’t have to attend. (D) doesn’t provide a reason to think the seminars might not be effective, nor does it criticize the reported association between efficiency and time management.
E
Most managers who are efficient have never attended a time management seminar.
This provides a reason to think time management training seminars are not going to be as helpful as the author believes.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did most of the healthy warblers transplanted to the neighboring island maintain a pattern of cooperative breeding when the neighboring island was much larger than Seychelles?
Objective
The correct answer must address something about the nature of the transplanted warblers or environmental factors affecting the warblers that help explain why most of the warblers maintained a pattern of cooperative breeding.
A
Many of the Seychelles warblers that were transplanted to the neighboring island had not yet reached breeding age.
Regardless of how many of the warblers had reached breeding age, we know the majority of the healthy warblers transplanted to the island maintained a pattern of cooperative breeding. (A) doesn’t help explain this phenomenon.
B
The climate of the island to which Seychelles warblers were transplanted was the same as that of the warblers’ native island.
We don’t know if climate affects warblers’ breeding habits. (B) gives us information that doesn’t aid our understanding of the phenomenon in the stimulus.
C
Most of the terrain on the neighboring island was not of the type in which Seychelles warblers generally build their nests.
This identifies an environmental factor on the neighboring island that could affect warbler breeding habits. If most of the terrain on the new island was not of the type warblers typically use for their nests, it may have caused many to maintain a pattern of cooperative breeding.
D
Cooperative breeding in species other than the Seychelles warbler often results when the environment cannot sustain a rise in the population.
We don’t know if the cooperative breeding habits of other species are indicative of the breeding habits of Seychelles warblers. (D) is irrelevant.
E
The Seychelles warblers had fewer competitors for nesting territory on the island to which they were transplanted than on their native island.
This may compound the phenomenon, as less competition for nesting could provide warblers with more space to raise offspring. The transplanted warblers having fewer nesting competitors isn’t an explanation for why many of those warblers maintained a cooperative breeding pattern.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The researcher hypothesizes that guinea pigs do not share a common ancestor with mice. Although guinea pigs and mice are both rodents, the researcher found that they have very different genetic patterns—as different as between mice and some nonrodent species.
Notable Assumptions
The researcher assumes that dissimilar genetic patterns are sufficient to conclude that two species have separate ancestors.
A
The researcher examined the genetic material of only 3 of over 2,000 species of rodents.
This does not affect the argument. The researcher hypothesizes that guinea pigs and mice stem from separate ancestors based on her finding that they have dissimilar genetic patterns—the researcher does not make an argument about rodents broadly.
B
Some pairs of species not having a common ancestor are genetically more similar to each other than are some pairs that do have a common ancestor.
This weakens the argument. It attacks the researcher’s assumption that dissimilarity in genetic patterns is enough to conclude two species lack a single common ancestor by noting that some species who do share an ancestor also lack similar genetic patterns.
C
The researcher selected nonrodent species that have the specific cell structures she wanted to analyze genetically, though many nonrodent mammals lack these cell structures.
This does not affect the argument. The researcher only claims that the genetic difference between mice and guinea pigs is as great as between mice and “some” nonrodent species.
D
For some genuine biological orders, the most recent common ancestor dates from later epochs than does the most recent common ancestor of other biological orders.
This does not affect the argument, which is that given their dissimilar genetic patterns, mice and guinea pigs do not share a single common ancestor at all. The recency of a common ancestor is irrelevant.
E
Peculiarities of body structure, such as distinctive teeth and olfactory structures, are shared by all rodents, including guinea pigs.
This does not affect the argument, which already notes that guinea pigs and mice share similar physical forms.