Self-paced
Like a number of other articles, Ian Raghnall’s article relied on a recent survey in which over half the couples applying for divorces listed “money” as a major problem in their marriages. ████████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████
Argument Breakdown
The context for this stimulus is an article by Ian Raghnall about a recent survey of divorcing couples. Most of the couples surveyed said "money" was a major problem for their marriages, so Raghnall concluded that financial problems are the main issue for marriages.
The argument, however takes issue with Raghnall's interpretation, using words of opposition like "yet" and "despite". Instead, the argument concludes that the survey does not establish that financial problems are the main issue for marriages, as Raghnall claims. This is supported by the claim that couples express other problems in terms of money.
The argument doesn't disagree with the survey's results, just with the support those results offer for Raghnall's conclusion. The argument also doesn't say Raghnall's conclusion is necessarily false—just unsupported.
18.
Which one of the following █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Financial problems are ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████
The stimulus doesn't make this claim; it only says that the survey doesn't support financial problems being the main problem for marriages. That doesn't equate to the exact opposite claim, that financial problems aren't an important problem at all.
b
Marital problems are ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ████
The stimulus doesn't mention marriage counselors or how to solve marital problems at all. Because the stimulus never makes or implies this claim, it can't be the conclusion.
c
The conclusion drawn ██ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████
In other words, to conclude that the survey supports financial problems being the main problem in marriages (Raghnall's conclusion) isn't justified. This is the claim supported by the argument: that the survey doesn't actually establish such a conclusion.
d
Over half the ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████
This is a factual claim stated as context, not the argument's conclusion. Nothing else in the stimulus supports this claim.
e
Many articles wrongly █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████
There are two major issues with (E). First, the stimulus only says that several articles relied on the survey; we don't know their conclusions, only Raghnall's conclusion. Without knowing if the articles make this claim, the stimulus can't be concluding that they're wrong.
Second, the stimulus never claims that Raghnall's conclusion is wrong, only that it's not supported. The stimulus leaves it open that money problems could still be couples' main issue; it's just that they survey doesn't tell us that.