Q7 - Numerous books describe the rules

[haeaznboiyoung]

Now that I look it over again, I don't know why I chose E over D... it was one of those things that my gut at the time told me to choose. But can someone elaborate on why E is wrong? Is it because credence was given through the premise of "however, this suggests that there is a single, objective standard of politeness?" So it MAY be absurd, but it is not the only way which it tries to lend credibility to the argument?

[bbirdwell]

Hmm. I don't exactly understand your specific question - these things can be hard to write about! So I'll just talk about (E) for a second.

The core of the argument is essentially this:
C: It's absurd to label one set of behaviors correct
p: standards vary from culture to culture

I can see two good reasons to eliminate (E). First of all, the author gives reasons for calling the position "absurd," so it isn't really "unfair." More fundamentally, calling the position absurd is not used to give the argument credence (ie support it) -- calling the position absurd is the CONCLUSION of the argument!

(D) is spot on. WHen a flaw question's answer choice begins with "fails to consider" or "overlooks the possibility..." then it's your job to consider that possibility and see what effect it would have the argument. So, if it's true that the authors were only describing one culture.... boom! the whole argument falls apart, because the main reason given for it (standards vary from culture to culture) has been taken away.

[haeaznboiyoung]

Haha thank you, yes I know my explanation was a little bit messy but you inadvertently answered it anyways! I was saying that the argument already has credence and it is not unfair to label it "absurd." Though I did miss the correct premise to focus on... but thank you for the explanation

[irene122]

I narrow down to B and D. Isn't B a minor flaw and D a major flaw of the stimulus?

I think B is a flaw in the stimulus because the premise says "numberous books, usually the author..." but conclusion refers to books of etiquette in general.

Any thougth would be appreciated!

[rostov]

He doesn't make a generalization. He says "numerous books" and "usually the authors of such books". He never says all books. So that's why I think B is wrong. D is much better because those "numerous books" and "authors of such books" could be referring to just one particular culture as D says.

[wj097]

He doesn't make a generalization. He says "numerous books" and "usually the authors of such books". He never says all books. So that's why I think B is wrong. D is much better because those "numerous books" and "authors of such books" could be referring to just one particular culture as D says.

While I agree that there is no generalization made between the first and the second sentence as you pointed out, I do see some leap between the second and the third; suggesting something (single objective standard of politeness) based off of few authors didn't sound quite right. I thought (B) tried to get at this leap, by suggesting that if ALL books were to codify/classify standards either polite or rude then it is more reasonable to suggest the same thing. However, I do see many reasons why this also can problematic...So I was thinking that maybe by stimulus saying "THIS suggests that there is a single...." rather than "It must be that..." there is not much of a leap between the second and the third sentence...can anyone verify??

As for (D), I couldn't quite agree with bbridwell's explanation that (D) gets rid of MAIN REASON for saying "standards of politeness vary from culture to culture". You can still say that the standards vary by culture despite some authors writing about standards for one particular culture... To me, (D) rather seemed to attack the flow from "usually, the authors of such book codify/classify as rude/polite" to intermediary conclusion, "this suggests that there is single standard of politeness". After all, how can we say that there is a single standard (not culture specific but in general) if the authors were writing for one particular culture as (D) suggests...In addition, I perceive the "Clearly, the standards of politeness vary from culture to culture" part as a fact, a premise not an intermediary conclusion as I don't see how one can arrive at this from the suggestion that there is a single standard of politeness; they seem to contradict each other. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[mitrakhanom1]

I got the wrong core. I called the conclusion: "clearly, standards of politeness vary from culture to culture, so it is absurd to label any one set of behaviors as correct and others as incorrect." i originally thought after clearly is the premise and after so is the conclusion, but then i changed my mind and thought of the language cues clearly and so that was the whole conclusion. and that the premise was the sentence that follows however. What did I do wrong and what should i avoid for next time?

[tommywallach]

Hey Mitra,

Do not depend on any particular verbal cue for your conclusion. You need to understand the text well enough to simply KNOW what the conclusion is. Remember, the conclusion is a claim that is supported by other things in the argument, and that does not support anything else.

Good luck!

-t