Q5 - Some scientific issue are so complex and counterintuiti

[mshinners]

What does the Question Stem tell us?
Logical Completion (Strengthen … "since ____")

Break down the Stimulus:
Conclusion: Some of the most interesting science stories aren't covered in popular magazines.
Evidence: Some of the most interesting science stories are so complex and counterintuitive that they can't be well understood by readers of popular magazines

Any prephrase?
Maybe we just need to spell out "popular magazines don't want to include stories that their readers cannot well understand"

Answer choice analysis:
A) Bingo

B) This is saying that popular magazines need to make sure they have interesting stories. Well these stories ARE interesting. The most interesting, in fact. That's not the issue. They're just hard to understand.

C) This doesn't touch on either part of the core "because these stories are hard to understand, these stories are usually not covered in popular mags"

D) This is in the ballpark, but it doesn't have the tight fit to the argument core that (A) does. The real issue is whether the issue is hard to understand, not what readers' perceptions of their own understanding are.

E) Willingness to seek out other sources has nothing to do with the core.

The correct answer is A.

Takeaway/Pattern: When logical completion says "since/because ____ ", it's a strengthen question. There were enough symbolic matches in this argument that we should anticipate a "language math" type answer (a bridge idea that connects the dangling idea in the premise to the dangling idea in the conclusion).

#officialexplanation

[atzhang6v6]

I chose B thinking if they care about staying in business they may not publish magazines that contain scientific issues because if readers do not understand what is written they will not buy magazines and it affects their business....
why is B wrong? is it because to make B correct people have to make additional assumption?

[ohthatpatrick]

(B) says that in order to stay in business, they need to publish interesting stories.

The story you just told me is that
"in order to stay in business, they need to publish stories that people can understand".

You were saying, "if they don't understand, they won't buy the issue". If an answer choice said THAT, it would be correct.

This answer choice says "if the story isn't interesting, they won't buy the issue." But the problem with these complex science stories isn't whether they're interesting; it's whether they're understandable.