Assumption Q

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Assumption Q

by hey_thr67 » Mon May 21, 2012 5:42 pm
2,500 individuals of voting age were polled and asked where they stood on the political spectrum. 78% of these individuals described themselves as "moderate" in their political views; however, in the national elections that most closely preceded and followed the poll, over half of the individuals polled voted for candidates far to one end of the political spectrum. It follows that these individuals did not accurately describe their political views.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the above argument relies?

A: Individuals always characterize themselves in keeping with their actual political views.
B: There were no moderate candidates in the national elections preceding and following the poll.
C: Voters with moderate political views will not vote for candidates who do not express moderate political views.
D: Voters can be highly fickle, changing their political views in a relatively short period of time.
E: Many of the polled individuals did not understand what a moderate political view is, and so misdescribed themselves.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by ice_rush » Mon May 21, 2012 6:19 pm
interesting question...I'd go with (C)...what's the source and OA?

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by hey_thr67 » Tue May 22, 2012 1:57 am
Can you state the reason ?

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by justharsha » Tue May 22, 2012 1:37 pm
IMO: A

The argument is that these individuals did not accurately describe their political views which means that the author assumed that the individuals would go ahead and cast their vote always based on their actual political views which may not be necessarily true. Option A is closest to this.
B: Nothing is said about the candidates in the passage
c: Again, nothing about candidates was mentioned
D: This is not an assumption but restating the result of the election
E: The argument does not talk about knowledge but only about the action(casting of vote) performed.

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by jimmyjimmy » Tue May 22, 2012 1:49 pm
A....

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by ice_rush » Tue May 22, 2012 4:27 pm
try negating (C) and you'd notice that we can no longer draw the conclusion: ..It follows that these individuals did not accurately describe their political views.


hope this helps!

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by [email protected] » Mon Jun 18, 2012 1:07 am
The IMO is C. There cannot be any doubt on this. It comes down to the options A and C, and C negates the conclusion very carefully. C is the correct answer choice.


By the way you did not post the OA.

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