Critical Reasoning

Hi All,

Following is a question from powerscore CR bible.....

[spoiler]OA = B.

For kicking out E....OE says

"The option claims that the soundest approach to dating an event is to undermine the credibility of as many of the competing sources as possible.

First, the stimulus suggests that the historian should, perhaps, eliminate the less credible ones. No mention is made of eliminating as many as possible, and the stimulus indicates that several remaining sources are to be expected.

Second, that same section discusses eliminating less credible sources, not undermining the credibility of those sources."

Can someone please help me clear following doubts of mine regarding the above explanation:

1. Why are we not kicking out E directly on the basis of "soundest".....IMO nowhere stimulus is talking about the soundest approach.
2. What is the difference between First and second point that OE is mentioning....to me both sound same....can someone please help me understand the same ?
[/spoiler]

===================================================
One of the most vexing problems in historiography is
dating an event when the usual sources offer
conflicting chronologies of the event. Historians
should attempt to minimize the number of competing
sources, perhaps by eliminating the less credible
ones. Once this is achieved and several sources are
left, as often happens, historians may try, though on
occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently
of the usual sources which date is more likely to be
right.


Which one of the following inferences is most strongly supported by the information above?
(A) We have no plausible chronology of most of the events for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date.
(B) Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians.
(C) Attaching a reliable date to any event requires
determining which of several conflicting chronologies is most likely to be true.
(D) Determining independently of the usual sources which of several conflicting chronologies is more likely to be right is an ineffective way of dating events.
(E) The soundest approach to dating an event for which the usual sources give conflicting
chronologies is to undermine the credibility of as many of these sources as possible.

I agree with your 1st question. Nowhere they have mentioned about the "soundest" approach. So that would be another strong hint to eliminate that choice.

For the 2nd question that you have, basically the second stmt is a subset of first. Just that he is emphasizing on different aspects of the same reason. However, that option can be eliminated if any of the two reasons are incorrect.

first option- he emphasizes on the criteria for elimination(less credible ones or as many as possible). Both are different criteria

second option- he emphasizes on differentiating between the words "eliminating" and "undermining". Both are again different cases.

So both the options independently emphasize separate reasons to eliminate this choice.

punitkaur wrote:I agree with your 1st question. Nowhere they have mentioned about the "soundest" approach. So that would be another strong hint to eliminate that choice.

For the 2nd question that you have, basically the second stmt is a subset of first. Just that he is emphasizing on different aspects of the same reason. However, that option can be eliminated if any of the two reasons are incorrect.

first option- he emphasizes on the criteria for elimination(less credible ones or as many as possible). Both are different criteria

second option- he emphasizes on differentiating between the words "eliminating" and "undermining". Both are again different cases.

So both the options independently emphasize separate reasons to eliminate this choice.

Thanks Punit !

And also A uses extreme words. Eliminate it. Strong Inference clue.

kbharadwaj.1987 wrote:And also A uses extreme words. Eliminate it. Strong Inference clue.

I guess this is not correct always....there are some questions in poerscore CR where extreme answers are the correct ones.....

Please tell if you think I am misinterpreting you or there is something I am missing here.