Critical Reasoning

Paes -

As I mentioned in my post, the official guide 12th edition problem 77 is very similar to this stimulus. That stimulus is longer with different bold faced portions and completely different answer choices. That one does not even mention an assumption in the correct answer choice.

I do not happen to know if this is an official question, GMAC has been known to offer the same stimulus in different ways, or if this one is made up using the OG stimulus. If that is the case it is not very nice to take an OG stimulus and change it only so much and give new answers. This would certainly confuse people.

You are correct that an assumption cannot be a FACT that is stated. If the assumption is a FACT it must be unstated. In this case the actual answer choice B - please see my posting above for the version of this question that has made the rounds (not the one originally posted in this thread) - does not claim that a FACT is an assumption. As I said above, "In this case the word "assumption" means that the statement is made with insufficient evidence and so the truth of the statement is not supported but is taken for granted, or "assumed." A fact cannot be assumed if it is stated, but other statements can."

We might say, "President Obama will choose another liberal Supreme Court Justice in his second term." This prediction relies on many assumptions: he will choose to run for a second term, he will get re-elected, there will be a vacancy on the Supreme Court. But this statement itself can also be said to be an assumption, especially the part about choosing a liberal justice. The statement assumes this is what he will do. See that this example is not a fact but more of a prediction. If I were to state any of the above facts, such as "President Obama has announced he will run for reelection" this can no longer be an assumption.

Your basic point is correct: a FACT that is an assumption must be unstated.

Thanks David for such a nice detailed explanation.