Tough CR question!!!

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 391
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:13 am
Thanked: 50 times
Followed by:4 members

Tough CR question!!!

by rakeshd347 » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:24 am
Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache,
which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from
modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from
many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have
been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics,
is the point of these contests. Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?
"¢ The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
"¢ Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
"¢ Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
"¢ To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
"¢ The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

OA is D
Last edited by rakeshd347 on Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 643
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 am
Thanked: 48 times
Followed by:7 members

by vinay1983 » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:36 am
rakeshd347 wrote:Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache,which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics,
is the point of these contests.


Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?

"¢ The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
"¢ Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
"¢ Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
"¢ To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
"¢ The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

OA to follow soon.
Source:MGMAT
Good one rakesh. According to me D is a contender for the OA.

"¢ The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.Really can this be inferred or is this a fact?He/she was the winner anyway so this a known thing not something that can be inferred.

"¢ Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell. So?what does this mean?Not useful to us!

"¢ Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.(Controversial w.r.t prompt)Hmmm

"¢ To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation. This can be inferred, since this serves as a base for the contest. Else the contest has no valid reason to be held if this was not true.

"¢ The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages. Irrelevant
You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 269
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:46 am
Thanked: 94 times
Followed by:7 members

by mevicks » Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:41 am
rakeshd347 wrote:Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache,
which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from
modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from
many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have
been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics,
is the point of these contests. Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?
"¢ The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
"¢ Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
"¢ Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
"¢ To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
"¢ The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

OA to follow soon.
Source:MGMAT
Restate what the columnist says:
Words in a foreign language require knowledge of Linguistics and international phonetics
English words should be used in future because it does not require outside knowledge

Now inference related answers must be supported by the text in the passage.
Only D is close to the paraphrase.

Regards,
Vivek