This question is an example of an argument par question. It's pretty tough.

Argument par questions are sort of of a higher level than say question 10, the main point question that we just did.

This question, it says the reference to the complaint of several centuries ago blah blah blah blah blah

right this this reference so this thing here which is part of the stimulus

what role does it play in the argument? So we have to describe what role it plays.

So it's very high level activity that we're doing. We have to understand what the argument is saying

yet we also have to understand the relationship between this statement here to the rest of the

argument so we can describe it in abstract language. Is it evidence which supports a claim?

Is it an illustration of a general hypothesis? Is it an example of blah blah blah whatever?

So let's read the stimulus. It is now a common complaint that the electronic media so things like

so to say books right and that now people commonly complain oh internet is ruining our brains

but so that renders from our grammar lessons we know this is all context renders this context

our argument begins right here but several centuries ago the complaint was that certain

intellectual skills such as a powerful memory extemporaneous eloquence that were intrinsic to

oral culture so several centuries ago our culture was not even literary it was oral you know nothing

was really written down it was all passed down orally so because that's how that's what our

culture was it was an oral culture we had things like powerful memory and extra extemporaneous

eloquence these things several centuries ago complaint was that these things were being

destroyed by the spread of literacy now okay so here's the premise so conclusion conclusion so

what awaits us is probably a mere alteration of the human mind rather than it's the evolution

so the statement here the complaint that several centuries ago so that's that's that's this

this part actually i choose different color to here we go right it's being destroyed this statement

all right that's the statement here so they're asking us you should always do this by the way

for the argument part questions you should always just bracket so you know what you're talking about

well we know what this is premise this is premise if there were an answer choice that was as easy

as saying you know answer choice a premise period great choose it move on but you know of course

it's not gonna make it that easy they're gonna say premise and then start talking about the premise

and start talking about other stuff any anywhere along the way they could go wrong so let's see

skills now it has to make sure it's right if it's going to say it's supporting the claim we have to

make sure that this claim which starts to describe what this claim is right what this game is well

we know what claim is supporting it's supporting this claim it's supporting our conclusion right

you see the support goes down this way so they better get this description right so it's supporting

so it's supporting the claim that the intellectual skills fostered by literary media are being

destroyed by the lecture but that's not no because that's that's some claim that they brought in from

somewhere up top right very tricky but you see how it's not right though they they have such a

i imagine else i write it having such a fun time making up these wrong answer choices they just

like you know start off right and then just start talking nonsense but it's not complete nonsense

it's not like the claim that aliens have arrived on earth and whatever no they don't say that they

take stuff that you already read but just some like this stuff and they throw it in there so it

seems relevant but it's actually entirely irrelevant right this is a hard hard thing to do to tell what

seems relevant versus what actually is relevant b says an illustration of the general hypothesis

being presented right of the general hypothesis being advanced that let's see is this a general

hypothesis intellectual capabilities are inseparable from the means by which people communicate i don't

remember reading that i don't remember in reading that anywhere in here where does it say intellectual

abilities are inseparable are uh completely glued and tied to the means by which we communicate i

mean this might be a true statement it might be true that factually empirically the way that people

communicate the way that you and i communicate that uh is highly determinative of our intellectual

abilities but that's not anywhere in here that's like in our world you know that's not that's not

in this thing so it certainly cannot illustrate something that's not even present in the stimulus

that's what that's what makes b wrong sees as an example okay example is not bad that is an example

what it is is a cultural change from oral to literal uh to literary culture from oral culture

to a literary culture and it's an example of a cultural change that did not necessarily have

a detrimental effect on the human mind overall right so the complaint was that where it's

it's detriment but but was it i mean wasn't it great that we switched over from oral to literally

seriously who's going to argue that like oral culture you know is better it's i mean i shouldn't

have phrased like that you will find people to argue every position no matter how weird or absurd

but um what i meant to it was a rhetorical question what i meant to say was of course

literary culture is better than oral culture of course we prefer this to that right so even though

this is changing right you see so what awaits us is a mere alteration just like how it happened a

couple hundred years ago when we transitioned from oral to literal we there was a there was a change

of our human mind yes sure we maybe lost some uh powerful memory sure maybe we lost x uh

temporaneous eloquence but we gain other things right you see so it's it's just a mere alteration

not a de-evolution so this is great that did not necessarily have a detrimental effect on the human

mind so okay you might not be totally convinced so what we can do is we can put a tilde right here

to and this is the way how you actually should be processing this and why first this question i

didn't just go c is right i put a tilde next to c it's not that it sounds kind of right it sounds

it sounds pretty good at least nothing blatantly wrong with it like like a has something blatantly

wrong b has something blatantly wrong this is something you have to juggle all the time when

you're deciding the answer choices get rid of the ones for that are wrong for sure and then

evaluate between the couple that are left so uh d says evidence that the claim so it's evidence that

unwarranted but that's not wait that doesn't so okay so here's a claim intellectual skills

required and phosphorite by literary media whatever those skills are right let's not confuse them with

powerful memory and extemporaneous eloquence those are skills of the oral culture so they didn't say

what skills we have as a result of our media um or rather yeah literary media so but but answer

choice d is saying whatever those skills are that that a reading society right reading books society

whatever intellectual skills that come along with that that this is supposed to be evidence that

those skills are not actually being lost but i don't see it but i don't see how that's evidence

but this is talking about something that was lost right the complaints ever century powerful memory

extemporaneous eloquence of the oral culture that yes that was that was being destroyed by the spread

of literacy so see the it's not that it's not being lost is that it's okay that it's being lost

sure we're losing it but look a couple hundred years ago we lost these things and we're still

fine for it it's just a mere alteration for human mind don't think of it as a devolution

that's what this statement is doing so d is an incredibly tricky answer choice right you see i

mean i hope you can see that it's it actually is being lost this is the claim that it's being lost

is not unwarranted at all and and and this statement doesn't try to make make it unwarranted

it concedes that it is being lost but but so what but you know it's being lost it's fine it's not

bad it's just an alteration he says it's possible evidence mentioned and then dismissed no it's

complaint that this happened we don't dismiss it later possible evidence that might be cited by

supporters of the hypothesis being i mean whatever this is now now they're just inviting you to think

really hard about this and waste all your time so um it's the faster right so the faster you can

eliminate the answer choice on site where it goes wrong the better it is you don't have to consider

the rest of this instead you can spend your time move on to the next question