Self-study
Support The television show Henry was not widely watched until it was scheduled for Tuesday evenings immediately after That's Life, the most popular show on television. ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ███
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that Henry was popular because it followed That’s Life and not because people actually liked it. The evidence for this claim is that Henry was relatively unpopular before it was placed after That’s Life, and became unpopular again once it was moved to a different time slot.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that Henry itself didn’t change in ways that would make it more or less popular, like changing the quality of the writing or acting, along with these time slot changes. The author also assumes that Tuesday evenings are not just the time when people are more likely to watch television, perhaps because they tend to have more free time on Tuesday evenings, or some similar reason.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Henry has been ██ ███ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██████
The length of time both shows have been on air doesn't relate to the argument about people only watching Henry because it followed That's Life.
b
The show that ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████████ ███ █ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████
This makes it sound like people weren't just watching Henry on Tuesday evenings because of the time slot, since another show in the same time slot has lower viewership. So this answer choice would actually weaken the author's argument that people were mainly watching Henry because of the time it was being aired.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
c
The show that ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██████
This answer choice gives us another example of a show that improved its viewership substantially after being moved to Tuesday evenings after That's Life. This strengthens the author's argument that the time slot after That's Life, rather than any quality about Henry itself, was the main factor driving Henry's improved ratings.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
After its recent ████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████
This might explain why Henry did poorly on Wednesday. But it's possible a similar situation was occurring when Henry was aired on Tuesday, and people still chose to watch Henry. We don't know, so we can’t draw any conclusions from this.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
e
That's Life was ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████
We're not interested in the historic viewrship of That's Life. What's relevant to the argument is that That's Life is now the most popular show on television.