Verbal Lecture-03
Strengthen questions:
There are following points that you should know before answering strengthen questions:
1. The strengthen answer choice provides additional information
2. Simply by stating the assumption.
These questions test your ability to support the argument through a new information. For instance, let’s discuss a simple argument and analyze choices that can strengthen this argument.
David is attempting exam A every month. Sooner or later he will get 99th percentile this year.
Which of the following statement or statements strengthen the argument above? (Indicate all that apply)
I. In most of the exams, David is getting above 90th percentile score.
II. David is an intelligent student.
III. Last year, David got 99 percentile score.
IV. David has enough time to prepare for exam.
Solution:
Choice 1: As it increases the likelihood of success, so it is the correct strengthen choice.
Choice II: Again, this choice provides additional information that supports the conclusion of the argument, by identifying a capability of David to attempt exam. So it is also a correct strengthen choice.
Choice III: This answer choice also provides an additional information regarding David history of success, that increases the likelihood of his success in this year as well.
Choice IV: Again this choice provides additional information that David has more time to prepare for his exam A. This also increases the likelihood of his success in his exam A this year.
Remember that if a choice increases the likelihood of the conclusion of the argument, it is a strengthen choice. For instance, let’s discuss an actual exam type of argument. First try by your own, then go with explanation below the question.
A mosquito bite can transmit to a person the parasite that causes malaria, and the use of mosquito nets over children’s beds can significantly reduce the incidence of malarial infection for children in areas where malaria is common. Yet public health officials are reluctant to recommend the use of mosquito nets over children’s beds in such areas.
Which of the following, if true, would provide the strongest grounds for the public health officials’ reluctance?
A) Early exposure to malaria increases the body’s resistance to it and results in a lesser likelihood of severe life-threatening episodes of malaria.
B) Mosquito bites can transmit to people diseases other than malaria.
C) Mosquito nets provide protection from some insect pests other than mosquitoes.
D) Although there are vaccines available for many childhood diseases, no vaccine has been developed that is effective against malaria.
E) The pesticides that are most effective against mosquitoes in regions where malaria is common have significant detrimental effects on human health.
Answer Explanation:
Few students have trap and perhaps selected choice C, which is incorrect. In fact this choice is out of scope. If mosquito nets provides protection from insects other than mosquitoes, then it will nether support nor refute the argument above. This choice does not say that the nets will not provide protection to the mosquitoes, rather it says the nets will provide protection to inspections other than mosquitoes. Remember that this statement does not mean that the nets will provide protection from other insects but not from malaria, because the premise in the argument says the nets can significantly reduce the malarial infection.
On other hand, if you read choice A precisely and carefully, it actually supports the reason why the public health official has shown reluctance for using mosquito nets. If the official allowed to use the nets, it will not help body to provide resistance for malaria and hence increase the likelihood of severe life-threatening episodes of malaria.
You have noticed that the correct answer choice is written in less attractive wordings, while the trap choice is written in much attractive wordings. So BE CAREFUL! 🙂
The choice that seems very attractive is many a times an incorrect one. So never get emotional when you see such choices. Be careful!
Difference between strengthen choice and assumption choice:
1. Strengthen statement provides additional information that makes the conclusion COULD be true. While assumption statement provides pre-requisite information that makes the conclusion MUST be true.
2. It makes the conclusion more believable and more strong. On other hand, assumption statement makes the conclusion the most rigid and strongest.
3. Negation test of strengthen statement not necessarily breakdown the conclusion. But negation test to an assumption statement will breakdown the conclusion for sure.
4. Every assumption statement is also a strengthen statement, but every strengthen statement is not always an assumption statement. In other words, if you consider that both strengthen and assumption statements are two circles, the assumption circle will be smaller than strengthen circle and it will be completely inside the strengthen circle. i.e Assumption circle will be inscribed in the strengthen circle:
Important Note: An assumption statement MUST be true in order for the conclusion to be true. But a strengthen statement is not necessarily MUST be true in order for the conclusion to be true.
For instance,
Cristiano Ronaldo is the best footballer in the world for making highest number of goals.
Strengthen statement: No footballer can play like Cristiano Ronaldo
Assumption statement: Highest number of goals makes a footballer the best.
Let’s consider the following argument and discuss:
The agriculture scientist informed that industrialist that a new revolutionary technique has been invented that has increased the quality and sweetness in taste of sugar. The scientist predicts that the use of this technique will increase the profit of the company because it will charge more for this type of sugar.
Which of the following statement will strengthen the conclusion in the argument above?
I. Cost of sugar produced using new technique will not be more than the cost of sugar produced using old technique.
II. Trial Customers are willing to pay for the higher price of the new quality sugar.
Solution:
Firstly, the argument states two reasons for the conclusion to hold true. i.e,
1. Use of new technique will increase the quality of sugar
2. Company will charge more for this quality sugar
Conclusion: The profit of the company will increase
Self-Analysis:
Remember that in strengthen questions, we should only do self-analysis to find the possible assumption or assumptions of the author while stating this argument. You will learn relationship between strengthen statement and assumption statement next to this example. So after finding the assumption, we always do POE (i.e Process Of Elimination).
In order for the conclusion to hold true, the assumption statement MUST be true. As profit is equals to Sales minus Cost, so the assumption might be that the cost associated with the production of sugar while using the new technique is not higher than the cost of producing the traditional method of production. Also another assumption might be that the sales will not decrease despite increase in the price of new type of sugar.
If you figure out an answer choice to be similar to the assumption, that will be a correct strengthen choice. Otherwise you need to do POE.
Choice I: It is clearly the assumption of the argument, and hence correct strengthen choice.
Choice II: Although this statement is not an assumption of the argument because TRIAL CUSTOMERS does not means overall customers. Nevertheless this choice is correct strengthen choice, because it increase the likelihood of the conclusion to be true.
Characteristics of Strengthen statement:
1. It MUST support the conclusion. In other words, it must be within the scope of the argument.
2. With the information in this statement, the conclusion should be more believable.
3. It may be an assumption of the argument.
4. It MUST provide new information in addition to the information stated in the premises.
5. Correct strengthen statement cannot be re-statement of premises.
During POE, you should check the two things in a correct strengthen choice:
a. It MUST support the conclusion
b. It MUST be a new information
For instance, as discussed earlier:
David is attempting exam A every month. Sooner or later he will get 99th percentile this year.
In this argument, any information that tells us that “David has a skill or has enough time for preparation to attempt well in exam” will fulfill both of the main requisite of strengthen statement. The statement must contains new information, and must support the conclusion of the argument.
On other hand, an information that tells us that “David use coffee or eat chocolates before attempting exam A” or similar statements that does provide new information, but not makes the conclusion more believable.
Characteristics of incorrect strengthen choice:
1. Out of scope answer choice, which presents new but irrelevant information that has no impact on conclusion. In other words, this choice do not effect conclusion.
2. Weaken the conclusion.
3. Trap answer choices that includes attractive similar wording that used in argument, but is unrelated to the conclusion. Many people incorrectly select such kind of choices and not able to understand the wording of the statement deeply. Such wording are convincing but irrelevant to the argument. Sometimes this is re-statement of the premise.
Cause & Effect strengthening arguments:
As you have learned Causal arguments with assumption topic. And you also learned that assumption is also a strengthener statement that support the conclusion. Let’s rewind what you had learned in assumption causal argument.
When cause & effect happen to appear in the conclusion (i.e inductive reasoning), there might be three possible assumptions as follows:
Assumption 1: Cause happened before the effect
Assumption 2: Effect did not cause the “cause”
Assumption 3: Effect was not because of other reason but the given cause.
Similarly, in strengthen cause & effect arguments, all three implicit assumptions, as stated above, can be the strengthen choice as well if stated in answer choice.
But here, in addition to above, if a statement or choice that provide evidence of these three assumptions, it will be a strengthen statement of that causal argument. For instance,
Historically, Starbucks Café has generated 50% of its revenue from sit-in customers, i.e. customers who spend 30 minutes or more in the coffee shop, and the remaining 50% from take-out customers, who buy and eat food outside. Since take-out customers are much more profitable, Starbucks Cafe recently started an advertising campaign in which it is creating new convenient offerings suitable for take-out customer. Since, Starbucks Cafe’s daily revenue has increased by 15%, the average ticket price of take-out customer must have gone up.
I. The average food traffic of take-out customers has remained the same.
II. The total number of customers that the store serves has not changed.
III. The store has not taken any steps to attract more sit-in customers
IV. The new offerings are not popular amongt sit-in customers.
Solution:
Self-analysis:
Here the author includes causality in the conclusion based on information in the premises. Therefore, the three implicit assumptions are:
1. The average ticket price of take-out customers increased before the 15% increase in Cafe’s daily revenue.
2. The 15% increment in Cafe’s daily revenue did not caused the increment in average ticket price of take-out customers.
3. There’s no alternate reason for 15% increment in Cafe’s daily revenue.
And if we notice carefully in the argument that the total revenue of the Cafe has increased from all customers. So it leaves a possibility that take-in customers revenue might have increased during this period. So this choice will weaken the argument. Therefore, the reverse of this, i.e the average ticket price of sit-in customers did not increased will strengthen the argument. And this is also the assumption of the argument which fall under the 3rd category of implicit assumption, i.e there’s no alternate reason of 15% increment in Cafe’s daily revenue, but the increment in average ticket price of take-out customers.
Similarly, the increment in total number of customers or number of take-out customers will also weaken the argument, and the reverse of this will strengthen the argument; because it will be an assumption statement i.e the number of take-out customers has not increased.
Choice I: As it depicts the same assumption as we have discuss above ,i.e number of take-out customers has not increased; this choice strengthen the argument so a correct answer.
Choice II: Similarly this statement re-state our version of assumption, so it is correct strengthen statement.
Choice III: Although this statement is not an assumption, but it makes the conclusion of the argument more believable. Hence, this is correct strengthen statement as well.
Choice IV: This choice also imply that the average ticket price of sit-in customer has not increase. i.e this statement supports the assumption that the average ticket price of sit-in customers not increased. So it is also correct strengthen statement.