Self-study
Columnist: Conclusion George Orwell's book 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspaper's readers. ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that 1984 has had "much influence" on "a great number" of the newspapers’ readers. This is because the second-most readers surveyed chose 1984 as the book that had had the most influence on their lives.
Notable Assumptions
Notice the quantifier words in the conclusion: "much influence" and "a great number". There's at least some support for "much influence", since 1984 was chosen by at least some readers as having had "the most influence" on their lives. But we don't know that it had "much influence" on "a great number" of readers, since we don't know how many people were needed to come in second place. If 8 people picked the Bible, 2 people picked 1984, and 490 people each put in one vote for 490 other books, 1984 would still come in second place, but wouldn't have influenced a "great number" of people. So the author assumes that because 1984 came in second place, it received enough votes to qualify as a "great number".
24.
The answer to which one ██ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
How many books ███ ████ ██████ ████████ █████
It doesn't matter how many books each person surveyed had read. We're just interested in each person picking one book and naming it as having the \"most influence\" on his or her life.
b
How many people █████ █████ █████ ████ █████
If many people chose books other than 1984, then 1984 may not have needed all that many votes to come in second place. Again, suppose 8 people chose the Bible, 490 people each chose their own individual book, and 2 people chose 1984. 1984 would still be in second place, but wouldn't have influenced a great number of readers. This information would help evaluate the argument.
c
How many people ████ ███ ███████████ ██████████
This answer choice is trying to make us question whether the sample of people surveyed is representative. But we don't have any reason to doubt that from the stimulus, and even if there were many more than 1000 readers of this magazine, the sample size of 1000 could still be representative. The sheer quantity of readers, on its own and without additional information, wouldn't be especially useful in evaluating this argument.
d
How many books ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ███████
We’re not interested in other Orwell books. Even if some were chosen, we know they ranked lower than 1984, and knowing only how many other Orwell books were chosen (rather than how many other books were chosen overall) wouldn't help us gauge whether a \"great number\" of people picked 1984.
e
How many of █████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██████
The argument just says people cited these books as having \"the most influence\" on their lives: this doesn't necessarily mean they've read it for themselves.