Self-study
Helena: Conclusion Extroversion, or sociability, is not biologically determined. ████████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ████████
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Analysis
There are two arguments taking place in this stimulus, and our goal is to identify how one arguer, Jay, interprets the other, Helena. To do that, we should first make sure we fully understand both arguments. If we don't understand what's going on, it will be difficult to describe what Jay is responding to.
Let's start with Helena's argument. Helena concludes that how sociable someone is isn't "biologically determined." This is because children born to introverts but raised by extroverts are less introverted than children both born to and raised by introverted parents. What Helena's getting at is that how someone is raised can affect their level of sociability. This is what she means by "not biologically determined": that biological factors are not the only influence over sociability.
Now let's consider Jay's argument. Jay's conclusion is simply that Helena is wrong, but why? Because some children born to introverts but raised by extroverts stay introverted. The thing is, this doesn't counter Helena's argument as we understand it. If Helena is simply saying that how children are raised can also influence their sociability, the fact that it's not the only influence doesn't disprove her conclusion. So for Jay to think that that evidence rebuts Helena's argument, Jay must think that Helena is arguing biology plays no role at all.
In short, the issue here is that there are two possible interpretations of "not biologically determined". One interpretation is "not exclusively determined by biology", and the other is "not determined by biology at all". It seems that Jay subscribes to the second interpretation, so that's what we're looking for in the answer choices.
25.
Jay's response suggests that he ███████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████
a
biological factors play ████ █ ███████ ████ ██ █ █████ █████ ███████████
This reflects a charitable interpretation of Helena’s views, not Jay’s (mis)understanding. This is essentially the claim that Helena's argument supports, whereas Jay's argument counters a stronger claim, that biology plays no role in a child being extroverted.
b
most but not ███ ████████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████
This is consistent with both arguments, but doesn't reflect Jay's understanding of Helena's point. (B) states a claim that could be true for both arguments, but we're looking for Jay's interpretation of Helena's conclusion that sociability is "not biologically determined".
The interpretation we're looking for is that sociability isn't affected at all by biology, because that's the claim Jay's argument targets. If Jay thought that (B) was Helena's conclusion, then Jay's evidence wouldn't disprove Helena at all—because (B) is consistent with both arguments. Because (B) would not be disproven by Jay's evidence, it can't be the conclusion Jay is arguing against.
c
children whose biological ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███████
We're looking for how Jay understood Helena's conclusion, whereas (C) states a contradiction of Helena's premise. Jay isn't arguing against the opposite of what Helena said.
Even if (C) accurately reflected Helena's premise, Jay doesn’t challenge Helena's premise in the first place. Jay is arguing against an interpretation of Helena's conclusion, not against her evidence.
d
biological factors do ███ ████ ███ ████ ██ █ █████ █████ ███████████
This describes Jay’s interpretation of Helena's conclusion. Jay claims to counter Helena's conclusion, so we know that the claim Jay's argument actually counters is what Jay thinks Helena concludes. And (D) states that very claim: Jay says that children sometimes remain introverted even if adopted by extroverted parents, which counters the claim that biology plays no role in sociability.
e
environmental factors can █████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████████
Jay’s evidence refutes the idea that biology can never cause a child to be introverted, by giving evidence that biology can sometimes play a role. On the other hand, (E) just says that biology sometimes isn't the main cause of extroversion. Because Jay's evidence wouldn't disprove this claim, we know it doesn't reflect Jay's understanding of Helena's conclusion.