Psychologist: People tend to make certain cognitive errors when they predict how a given event would affect their future happiness. But people should not necessarily try to rid themselves of this tendency. After all, in a visual context, lines that are actually parallel often appear to people as if they converge. If a surgeon offered to restructure your eyes and visual cortex so that parallel lines would no longer ever appear to converge, it would not be reasonable to take the surgeon up on the offer.
The psychologist’s argument does which one of the following?
Some would have you believe that the economic problems of Western Europe in the 1980s were caused by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil cartel. This is nonsense. After all, Great Britain was not dependent on OPEC oil and yet Great Britain suffered from the same economic problems that afflicted France and West Germany.
The author’s point is made primarily by
1 Crore+ students have signed up on EduRev. Have you? Download the App |
Sarah: some schools seek to foster a habit of volunteering in their students by requiring them to perform community service. But since a person who has been forced to do something has not really volunteered and since the habit of volunteering cannot be said to have been fostered in a person who has not yet volunteered for anything, there is no way this policy can succeed by itself.
Paul: I disagree. Some students forced to perform community service have enjoyed it so much that they subsequently actually volunteer to do something similar. In such cases, the policy can clearly be said to have fostered a habit of volunteering.
Paul responds to Sarah’s argument using which one of the following argumentative techniques?
Sasha: Handwriting analysis should be banned in court as evidence of a person’s character: handwriting analysts called as witnesses habitually exaggerate the reliability of their analyses.
Gregory: You are right that the current use of handwriting analysis as evidence is problematic. But this problem exists only because there is no licensing board to set professional standards and thus deter irresponsible analyst from making exaggerated claims. When such a board is established, however, handwriting analysis by licensed practitioners will be a legitimate courtroom tool for character assessment.
Gregory does which one of the following in responding to Sasha’s argument?
Traditional regional performing arts groups across the country provide an important service to small communities. Most of these groups focus on the performance of time-honored material and offer people within the communities an opportunity to experience excellent traditional performances without having to travel far. Unfortunately, federal funding tends to support avant-garde groups whose focus is largely on progressive material. Although these groups are unquestionably an essential facet of the performing arts, they do not generally draw as wide of audiences and thus are receiving an undue amount of federal funding for the service that they provide to a community and the return on the federal investment. Those responsible for providing federal grants to performing arts groups should reconsider the allotment of funding in order to favor traditional performing arts groups with respect to their service to a community.
The argument in the passage above proceeds by
In seeking reelection in a district with a large elderly demographic, Judge Hawthorne touts his record on age-discrimination cases. He claims that in 57 percent of cases, he has decided in favor of the elderly litigant. According to his campaign literature, this is proof of his commitment to the interests of his constituents.
The chief flaw in the judge’s argument is that it does not take into account the possibility that
Some prehistoric pots made by the Woodland people have patterned markings that indicate the pot was formed using the paddling method. These patterned markings result only from this particular method. Thus archaeologists' recent discovery of similar patterned markings on the pots made by the Mill Creek people suggests that the Mill Creek people used the paddling method, not just the coiling method.
In the passage, the author develops the argument by
Economist: The automobile industry seems to be on the way to recovery from an earlier slump. Recent figures show that the auto companies are purchasing more equipment and spending more on R&D than ever before, indicating that they expect sales to increase in the near future.
That the auto companies are purchasing more equipment and spending more on R&D than ever before figures in the economist’s argument in which one of the following ways?
A number of serious amateur photographers have tested the new Apheron digital camera. With it, they observed that the camera took photographs with much finer detail both in bright and low light situations than with the 10-megapixel Norwich, even though the Norwich cameras offer a higher resolution at 10 megapixels than the 8-megapixel Apheron cameras. Given these amateur photographers’ observational findings, any serious photographer ought to choose the Apheron if she or he is buying a digital camera for both bright and low light situations.
The argument proceeds by
Educator: Scholars are concerned that the increasing popularity of online universities and low-residency degree programs will render the classroom experience obscure. They object to this trend, saying that online courses do not offer the level of collaboration and support that the traditional classroom does. At Plymouth Online, however, we offer a fully interactive experience with web video, web-based collaboration software, online chat, and video conferencing sessions. It is therefore possible to join our online university and experience a very close approximation of the in-classroom experience, and in some situations, the experience is a richer and more satisfying one.
The educator’s argument proceeds by
18 docs|139 tests
|