Critical Reasoning

Children develop the ability to form the sounds necessary for speech between the ages of two and five. A team of linguists studied groups of children between two and five years of age in several regions of Australia and found that children pronounced certain phonemes differently in different regions. For example, children from a rural town in the South consistently pronounced the phonemes differently from their counterparts in Sydney. The linguists concluded that pronunciation of these phonemes is learned from contact with adults and other children and not inherited genetically.

Which of the following, if true, would lend the most support to the linguists' conclusion?

A. There are more similarities than differences found in the pronunciation patterns of any two groups of Australian children involved in the study.
B. Compared to the younger children in the study, the older children who had begun preschool were consistently better able to pronounce the phonemes.
C. Children from one of the regions studied had more difficulty pronouncing certain phonemes than did the children from every other region.
D. Australian children under the age of six have little contact with adults or children outside their region.
E. It has been proven that young children acquire social behavior patterns from contact with others and not through genetics.


my concern: the proclaimed answer is B; however i feel B has a fault : The ARGUMENT is about "DIFFERENTLY" pronouncing phonemes and NOT ABOUT "BEING better able to pronounce the phonemes"

To prove that this PROCESS IS not GENETIC but is learned the AUTHOR should have studied THOSE AUSTRALIAN babies who have settled in some other region .

B DOES not prove that THIS PROCESS is NOT GENETIC . B just claims that older kids are BETTER ABLE to PRONOUNCE the phonemes ---->this could very well be a genetic development, a tendency that develops with age . case in point : diabetes is GENETIC disorder but it is MORE PRONOUNCED with AGED people or in there words it gets MORE DEVELOPED in OLDER PEOPLE than in TEENAGE PEOPLE ---->by this we cannot conclude that OLDER PEOPLE GETS this DISEASE from OTHER PEOPLE around them !!

Yes, perfect. You totally nailed it, and seeing logic clearly the way you did is just the way to get CR questions right.

On another note, your diabetes example is almost completely incorrect. Diabetes is not really caused by genes. It is a created condition that people experience because of what they eat and how they live, including how they handle their emotions. In fact, given that a person's diet choices, emotional patterns and lifestyle choices can be influenced by other people around that person, it would be fairly accurate to say that people pick up diabetes from the people around them.

Thanks Marty for your reply

BY calling diabetes a GENETIC disorder i meant that it is SOMEWHAT hereditary in nature . I agree with you that lifestyle does affect people; however as much i know about diabetes there is one class of diabetes that is very much hereditary in nature and it ,at times, RUNS in FAMILY for this specific reason

aditya8062 wrote:there is one class of diabetes that is very much hereditary in nature and it ,at times, RUNS in FAMILY for this specific reason

Let's make that into a CR question.

Diabetes Researcher: In a survey of 5000 people diagnosed with diabetes we found that many of the survey respondents, 64%, have in their families direct antecedents, their parents, and direct descendants, their children, who are also experiencing diabetes. Since parents and children carry many of the same genes, it is therefore clear that the majority of diabetes type health issues are caused by genes.

What assumption does the researcher's conclusion rely on?

(A) Diabetes is not like other illnesses attributed to genetics in that it can be solved with lifestyle changes.

(B) Families don't necessarily live in the same geographic location.

(C) The survey respondents included people experiencing all of the various types diabetes type issues.

(D) Members of families don't share in common certain lifestyle and diet choices that can lead to diabetes.

(E) Diabetes is incurable in certain people.

Great !! you made a question out of it !!
D seems best in your question : Members of families don't share in common certain lifestyle and diet choices that can lead to diabetes

aditya8062 wrote:Great !! you made a question out of it !!
D seems best in your question : Members of families don't share in common certain lifestyle and diet choices that can lead to diabetes

Bingo!!!

LOL

Cheers.

aditya8062 wrote:Children develop the ability to form the sounds necessary for speech between the ages of two and five. A team of linguists studied groups of children between two and five years of age in several regions of Australia and found that children pronounced certain phonemes differently in different regions. For example, children from a rural town in the South consistently pronounced the phonemes differently from their counterparts in Sydney. The linguists concluded that pronunciation of these phonemes is learned from contact with adults and other children and not inherited genetically.

Which of the following, if true, would lend the most support to the linguists' conclusion?

A. There are more similarities than differences found in the pronunciation patterns of any two groups of Australian children involved in the study.
B. Compared to the younger children in the study, the older children who had begun preschool were consistently better able to pronounce the phonemes.
C. Children from one of the regions studied had more difficulty pronouncing certain phonemes than did the children from every other region.
D. Australian children under the age of six have little contact with adults or children outside their region.
E. It has been proven that young children acquire social behavior patterns from contact with others and not through genetics.

I received a PM requesting that I comment.

This CR links the LEARNING OF PHONEME PRONUNCIATION to CONTACT WITH ADULTS AND OTHER CHILDREN.
The correct answer choice must support this link.
B: Compared to the younger children in the study, the older children who had begun preschool were consistently better able to pronounce the phonemes.
Here, children who have had CONTACT WITH ADULTS AND OTHER CHILDREN in preschool exhibit better PHONEME PRONUNCIATION than do children who have not yet entered preschool, SUPPORTING the link between the learning of phoneme pronunciation and contact with adults and other children.

The correct answer is B.

my concern: the proclaimed answer is B; however i feel B has a fault : The ARGUMENT is about "DIFFERENTLY" pronouncing phonemes and NOT ABOUT "BEING better able to pronounce the phonemes"

To prove that this PROCESS IS not GENETIC but is learned the AUTHOR should have studied THOSE AUSTRALIAN babies who have settled in some other region .

B DOES not prove that THIS PROCESS is NOT GENETIC . B just claims that older kids are BETTER ABLE to PRONOUNCE the phonemes ---->this could very well be a genetic development, a tendency that develops with age .

The correct answer choice does not have to PROVE that the conclusion is correct.
It merely has to SUPPORT the link that the passage aims to establish.
Many conclusions cannot be PROVED but can ONLY be supported.

The CR above -- and its OA -- mimic the following CR and OA in the OG12:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/male-bowerbirds-t52505.html

case in point : diabetes is GENETIC disorder but it is MORE PRONOUNCED with AGED people or in there words it gets MORE DEVELOPED in OLDER PEOPLE than in TEENAGE PEOPLE ---->by this we cannot conclude that OLDER PEOPLE GETS this DISEASE from OTHER PEOPLE around them !!

It seems illogical to draw an analogy between phoneme pronunciation (a BEHAVIOR) and diabetes (a DISEASE).
A person can learn phoneme pronunciation.
A person CANNOT learn diabetes.

GMATGuruNY wrote:It seems illogical to draw an analogy between phoneme pronunciation (a BEHAVIOR) and diabetes (a DISEASE).
A person can learn phoneme pronunciation.
A person CANNOT learn diabetes.

Actually I think that both phoneme pronunciation and diabetes are probably attributed to genetics by some and considered learned behavior or, in the case of diabetes, the result of learned behavior by others.

I personally consider diabetes to be something people experience because of behaviors that they engage in, behaviors that can in fact be learned or passed down.

So the analogy between phoneme pronunciation and diabetes is actually pretty good.

Marty Murray wrote:I personally consider diabetes to be something people experience because of behaviors that they engage in, behaviors that can in fact be learned or passed down.

So the analogy between phoneme pronunciation and diabetes is actually pretty good.

Diabetes may very well be the RESULT of learned behavior, but diabetes itself is not a type of learned behavior.