infernce

This topic has expert replies
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1560
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:38 am
Thanked: 137 times
Followed by:5 members

infernce

by thephoenix » Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:55 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?

A.The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.

B.Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.

C.Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.

d.To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.

E.The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

[spoiler]The inference should be with respect to the Aurthor's concern abt the use of foreign language words that contestants are given.

In that case C should be the answer !!!
Kindly correct me if i am wrong .. Thanks in Advance [/spoiler]
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1578
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 am
Thanked: 128 times
Followed by:34 members
GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:26 am
I would choose D.


Choice D aligns with the author stating that contestants shouldn't have to have a knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics. If the author believes that spelling contests shouldn't be about this, choice D correctly makes the inference that currently the author believes that spelling bees are about international phonetics and linguistics.

With choice C, it is the opposite answer. The author doesn't believe that winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language, but with all aspects of the English language. A subtle but important distinction.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 777
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:02 am
Location: Mumbai, India
Thanked: 117 times
Followed by:47 members

by komal » Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:49 am
thephoenix 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?

A.The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
Incorrect : There is no mention of how many words the winner knew to spell.

B.Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
Incorrect : Difficulty level of spellings is irrelevant here.

C.Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
Incorrect : Stimulus states that spelling bees should limit themselves to ENGLISH language.

d.To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
Correct : Stimulus states that knowledge of linguistics n phonetics is not the point of the contests. This is exactly what it infers.

E.The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.
Incorrect : Clearly out of scope/irrelevant