i'm curious -- where did you get the statistic that most cr problems containing blanks are "find the assumption" questions?iamcste wrote:1. Usally, whenever we have a blank -----------------------------preceded by premise indicator such as "because" its supposed to be an assumption qtn but this one turned to be a weakning question.....my questions are how do we identify whether its an assumption or weakener question particularly when we have a blank? what words/indicators actually signals this question as a weakener question?
in general, i've seen so few of these (in official materials) that i would feel uneasy making such generalizations in the first place, but i don't remember noticing a preponderance of assumption questions among them.
in this particular problem, note the pairing of the following transition words:
"it has been suggested that..."
... and then, in the sentence containing the blank,
"however ... that statistic would be what we would expect [even if the above conditions do not hold]"
i don't think there are any simple transitions that you can memorize here in order to tell immediately that this is a "weaken" question; you have to probe the nature of the passage itself, noting the interaction between the different statements.
in general, transition words such as the ones noted above will help you figure out that interaction, but i don't think there's a single list of words that you could just memorize.
it doesn't have just one conclusion. the2. where is the conclusion of this question?
it contains a subsidiary conclusion ("it has been suggested that regular release of endorphins increases people's longevity"), but the ultimate purpose of the passage is to argue against that subsidiary conclusion.
the ultimate conclusion of the entire argument is the final sentence, which basically amounts to "the reasons given above in explanation of the statistic are wrong".
#4:3. does the first two statements as mentioned below convey that regular volunteering leads to longevity? which statement is co-relation and which one is causation?
4. what is the role of the statistics statment "And a statistic on adults who regularly engage in volunteer work helping others shows that they live longer, on average, than adults who do not volunteer" in this question
this is a classic statement of CORRELATION. it merely states that one statistic is related to another statistic, i.e., they both increase or decrease in tandem.
as you are probably well aware if you've done many critical reasoning questions, the mere fact that two quantities increase or decrease together does not indicate that one of them is causing the other.
as far as the purpose of the other two statements (question 3) --
When people engage in activities that help others, their brain releases endorphins,
the brain's natural opiates, which induce in people a feeling of well-being.
this one is presented as a fact, with which you cannot take issue: volunteer work releases endorphins.
because this is presented as a fact (and, indeed, is presented as a causal relationship), this is the sentence that allows you to treat volunteer work as a guarantee of the release of of endorphins.
once you have that statement, turn to this one:
It has been suggested that regular release of endorphins increases people's longevity.
this is the causal relationship that is (fallaciously) inferred from the above correlation: it has been observed that people who volunteer (and who therefore release endorphins while doing so) happen to also live longer than other people, so the people making this "suggestion" are seeing that correlation and taking it to imply causation.