Self-paced
Marianne is a professional chess player who hums audibly while playing her matches, thereby distracting her opponents. ████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ ████ ████████████ ██████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███
Summarize Argument
Marianne claims that she should not be held responsible for her humming, which distracts other players during chess matches. Marianne supports this conclusion by explaining that she was unaware of her humming, and her humming is therefore involuntary.
Notable Assumptions
Marianne assumes that professional chess players should not be held responsible for involuntary behavior, even when it distracts their opponents. Marianne also assumes that she should not be held responsible for future humming, even though she has now been made aware of the fact that she hums. In other words, she assumes that nothing will change regarding the involuntary nature of her humming.
We can strengthen Marianne's argument by affirming one of these assumptions, or conversely, weaken it by undermining one of the assumptions.
25.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████
a
The officials of █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████
This does not weaken Marianne’s argument, because the chess officials aren’t trying to control her behavior outside of chess matches. The argument is limited to Marianne’s habit of humming during matches, so this claim is just irrelevant.
b
Many of the ███████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ████████
This does not weaken Marianne’s argument. The customs of amateur chess matches have nothing to do with the argument, which is disputing whether a rule about professional chess should be enforced against involuntary behavior. This claim is irrelevant.
c
Not all of █ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████
This does not weaken Marianne’s argument, because she is only concerned with a particular involuntary action, humming, of which she is unaware. Saying that people are aware of some involuntary actions has no bearing on the argument.
d
A person who ████ █████████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ███
This weakens the argument by targeting Marianne’s assumption that her habit of humming will necessarily remain involuntary. If Marianne can easily learn to recognize and control her humming, then her reasons for asking not to be held responsible disappear.
e
Not all of ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ████████
This does not weaken Marianne’s argument, which is based on the involuntary nature of her humming, not whether the humming truly impacts her opponents. This has no bearing on the actual substance of Marianne’s argument.