Q7 - Mark: Advances in technology

[smiller]

Question Type:
Identify the Disagreement

Stimulus Breakdown:
Mark's argument:
Premise: News can be reported on the Internet as it is happening, any time of day.
Premise: It's impossible for print newspapers to compete with this.
Conclusion: Advances in technology are the cause of declining print newspaper sales.

Fatuma's reply:
Premise: Articles in print newspapers are too long (and the length doesn't improve readers' understanding).
Premise: Internet news articles get to the point.
Conclusion: Advances in technology are not the cause of declining print newspaper sales.

Answer Anticipation:
Fatuma doesn't dispute the idea that newspaper sales are declining, and she doesn't disagree with Mark's claim about news appearing quickly on the Internet. Fatuma disagrees that news appearing more quickly on the Internet is the cause of declining newspaper sales. We should understand this exact point of disagreement in order to evaluate the answers.

Correct answer:
(A)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Correct: The cause of the decline in newspaper sales is the point of disagreement.

(B) Half Scope: This is one of Fatuma's premises, but Mark never comments on this at all. Nothing he says tells us whether he agrees with this or not.

(C) Half Scope: Like choice (B), this is one of Fatuma's premises, but Mark never comments on this at all.

(D) Half Scope: Again, this is all Fatuma. Mark never comments on this.

(E) Half Scope: Just to switch things up, this answer describes one of Mark's premises that Fatuma never directly addresses.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Half scope answers are common in Identify the Disagreement questions. If an answer choice describes an idea that only one person commented on, and we don't know the other person's opinion about it, then it's not the point of disagreement.

#officialexplanation

[ThaoN810]

Thank you for you post! I have a question: How can I be sure that Fatuma is disputing with Mark about the sole cause of newspaper's decline in favor of the Internet? What if she's just bringing up another cause, because there can be multiple causes for a single phenomenal. What are the cues that she might not be saying, "I agree, and here's another cause for the decline: Newspaper articles are just too long while Internet articles are short"?