Television

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Television

by nileshdalvi » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:30 am
Studies have shown that children who watch a lot of
television do not typically read above grade level.
In the United States, more than three out of ten
children watch television at least 35 hours per week.
In other western countries, less than one child out of
ten watches that much television. In contrast, these
other children perform much better than American
children on reading tests and more often read above
grade level. A majority of these non American
children read above their school grade level; a
smaller percentage of American children read above
grade level. In order to read as well as children in
other western countries, American children will
have to reduce the amount of time they spend
watching television.
The passage depends upon which one of the following
assumptions?
(A) American children are not as interested in
reading well as children in other western
countries.
(B) Other children are more structured in their
studies than children in the United States.
(C) If a child wants to become a better reader, he
or she will not watch as much television.
(D) If a child watches less television, his or her
reading level will increase.
(E) The methods American teachers and parents
use to teach reading are not significantly
worse than the methods used by teachers and
parents in other western countries.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by cans » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:39 am
IMO D
Negate it. If child watches less tv, his level will not increase.
Thus watching less television won't help.
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by rishimaharaj » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:54 am
Hello Nishesh,
Here's my attempt at this question. It took approximately 1:02 for me to read and choose the answer.

A, B, and C do not seem to be possible assumptions upon which the argument relies. Negating them shows that they are not valid.
A. If the interest level is lower in American children, then lowering the amount of television viewed might not make the child a better reader.
B. This talks about studies in general, not particularly reading. It seems out of scope. Regardless of American children's structure in studies (more or less) there doesn't seem to be any impact on television viewing.
C. This choice seems to reiterate the conclusion.

I was stuck between choices D and E. Both seem plausible, but D seems to repeat what was stated in the conclusion, just like answer choice C.

Answer choice E, on the other hand, seems to bring in an outside factor which could affect the conclusion negatively and weaken the argument. If the methods of teaching reading *are* significantly different, then the cause of the lower reading levels could be attributed to those methods instead of the amount of television being watched.

I chose answer choice E because of this.

Hopefully this is right! :)

Hope this helps,
--Rishi

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by nileshdalvi » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:13 am
That reasoning is correct, Rishi...One more point to learn is that for Assumption Questions, the answer chocie that reiterates the conclusion is not the best choice to select if you have better choices.

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by gunjan1208 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:29 pm
Awesome explanation Rishi.

I chose E but the I did not have this solid reason to negate D.