Q8 - Knowledge of an ancient language is essential for readi

[ngogirl]

I eliminated B-D and chose E. I thought E was the correct answer because the stimulus says most ancient texts have been translated. From this I thought well if a scholar needs access to a text that has not been translated, then they would need to know the language.

Also, the first sentence says knowledge is essential for reading the original ancient texts, so even if a work is translated there is a factor in reading the ancient text (translated or not) that would require the reader to know the original language..

I thought A captured the first flaw.

Please help!! I am not doing well on the flaw questions, so any advice would be much appreciated.

[timmydoeslsat]

The issue you bring up in the second paragraph of your post is not supported by the stimulus. The first statement of this stimulus tells us that the knowledge of the original ancient language is required to translate those documents. After the documents have been translated, we have no support that the knowledge of that ancient language is essential.

However, the rest of your post is absolutely spot on and is completely represented by what answer choice A says. We know that most of of those documents have been translated. However, we cannot conclude that ancient-history scholars no longer need that knowledge of ancient language. Perhaps those scholars would be called upon to translate those other documents not yet translated.

This argument is showing that the work that these scholars would be doing may not always involve the translating, but that does not mean that there would never be a situation where they must.

Your analysis for choice E is not considering that the conclusion is not inconsistent with the premises. There is no contradiction. It simply goes too far.

[513852276]

Just be nerdy. Since stimulus doesn't say "reading original ancient document" is the only part in ancient-history study which requires knowledge of ancient language, is it too far to say learning ancient language is not always necessary? For example, careers as ancient history scholars always need to composite in ancient language, so learning ancient language is still always necessary (the stimulus does not exclude this possibility). So, is answer choice A deficient because the stimulus does not need to conclude on the ground that learning ancient language is not always necessary?

[roflcoptersoisoi]

Premise: Knowledge of ancient language is essential for reading ancient documents.
Premise: Most ancient documents have been translated to modern language, so scholars of ancient history can read them without learning ancient languages
Conclusion: Aspirant scholars of ancient history need not learn ancient languages

Takes for granted that ancient languages are necessary only for reading documents, perhaps scholars of ancient history need to know ancient languages for other purposes.

(A) Bingo
(B) Descriptively inaccurate. Which statement of fact is treated as if it were just a mere opinion? The statements of facts in the premises are not treated as if they were opinions.
(C) There is no circular reasoning here. The conclusion, that learning ancient languages is no longer necessary for aspirant scholars is not something that is mentioned in the premises.
(D) Descriptively inaccurate. Where exactly is the judgement of experts applied?
(E) The premises are complimentary, they are not inconsistent.