Self-study
Proposals for extending the United States school year to bring it more in line with its European and Japanese counterparts are often met with the objection that curtailing the schools’ three-month summer vacation would violate an established United States tradition dating from the nineteenth century. ████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████
Counter-Argument
We start with other people's argument: some people object to proposals to extend the school year in the U.S. by saying that the three-month summer vacation is an established U.S. tradition dating from the 19th century. The author then provides a counter-argument: while it's true that most schools in the 19th century closed for three months in the summer, that was because those schools were in rural areas where children needed to work during the summer. So, the author argues, the appeal to 19th-century tradition doesn't support the other people's argument in favor of keeping the three-month vacation — at best, it instead supports the idea that the length of the school year should be adjusted based on economic needs.
Describe Method of Reasoning
The author responds to the other people's objection by agreeing with them on some of the facts — that most schools in the nineteenth century did close for three months each summer — but then providing additional information that clarifies the reason for this tradition: it was based on the specific economic needs of the time. So, the author suggests, the "real" tradition would be to continue adjusting the length of the school year based on economic needs, not to arbitrarily keep a three-month summer vacation.
26.
The argument counters the objection ██
a
providing evidence to ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ █ ████████████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████████████ ████ ████ ██████
Incorrect. The stimulus actually says that the objection is correct about the length of time schools were closed in the nineteenth century: three months. The point is that the people making the objection haven't considered the reason for closing the schools, not that they are mistaken about how long schools were closed for.
b
calling into question ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ████████ ██████ ██████
This is a tricky answer choice. It's true that the author rejects one specific objection that appeals to history. But this isn't the same as questioning the value of historical information in general in debates over current policies. Notice that the author doesn't reject the objection by denying that historical information is relevant, but by providing more historical information. So this is incorrect.
c
arguing for an ███████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████
This is correct. The author provides additional information about the reason for the 19th-century practice of closing schools for three months during the summer, and then suggests that the real "tradition" underlying this involves adjusting the length of the school year based on economic demands, not keeping three months as a fixed length for the summer vacation.
d
showing that those ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████
Incorrect. The author doesn't make any claims about the motivations of the people making this objection. She suggests they are misguided in their understanding of tradition, but this isn't the same thing as claiming they don't actually care about tradition.
e
demonstrating that tradition █████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████████ █████
Incorrect. While the author does suggest that an appeal to tradition would, if anything, suggest adjusting the school year based on economic needs, the stimulus never says that the U.S.'s economic needs are the same as those of the "rest of the industrialized world," and that therefore the U.S. should bring its school year in line with other industrialized countries. So this answer choice doesn't accurately describe the argument.