#26 - Specific Reference, Weaken

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Sdaoud17]

I got this Question Right which is A. but it took me some time to get it. So would you mind telling me the quickest approach to know that A is Correct than the others especially E or B. Because I know in a weekend Question such as this one , you need to focus and attack the conclusion which is " reported in the press; unsurprisingly, none correlates .... movement activity" in last Paragraph and can work because you can weaken it by saying those reports are difficult to anticipate (E) and you can say that
or that all the economics indictors didnot have the same coverage (B)
Thank you

[Steve Stein]

Hi Sdaoud17,

Thanks for your question, and particularly for the detail you provided--very helpful!

In the final paragraph, the author points out that if you look at the right set of statistics, you can find some support for any of the three theories.

The author goes on to say that a better test would be to look for a correlation between each economic indicator mentioned, and the frequency of press reports on movement-initiated events.

We could undermine this test by pointing out that the press gets to choose how many reports to do on various events--the press could deliberately throw off the whole equation by controlling the frequency of their own reports.

The problem with B (and it's a subtle one) is that the author's point does not concern the press coverage of the economic indicators--it concerns the press coverage of movement-initiated events.

As for answer choice E, even if such events can be difficult to anticipate, that doesn't make them any more difficult to report after their occurrence, so that should not have any effect on the frequency of press reports.

Tough question! I hope that's helpful--please let me know.

Thanks!

~Steve

[avengingangel]

Thanks, Steve - those explanations are REALLY helpful. Could someone please elaborate why D is wrong, too?? I feel like it has a similar effect as does A -- giving a variance/inconsistency/perceived bias to different movement-initiative events that are reported. In other words, it won't be a reliable "test" to do. Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Thanks, Steve - those explanations are REALLY helpful. Could someone please elaborate why D is wrong, too?? I feel like it has a similar effect as does A -- giving a variance/inconsistency/perceived bias to different movement-initiative events that are reported. In other words, it won't be a reliable "test" to do. Thanks!

Hello avengingangel,

Answer D basically repeats "...unsurprisingly, none correlates significantly with the pace of reports about movement activity", so is almost an opposite answer from what you want. It doesn't give a bias to movement-related events; rather, it shows a lack of connection between them and economic factors. (Contrast answer A, which shows that newspaper editors might be biased.)

Hope this helps,
David

[lathlee]

Thanks, Steve - those explanations are REALLY helpful. Could someone please elaborate why D is wrong, too?? I feel like it has a similar effect as does A -- giving a variance/inconsistency/perceived bias to different movement-initiative events that are reported. In other words, it won't be a reliable "test" to do. Thanks!

Hello avengingangel,

Answer D basically repeats "...unsurprisingly, none correlates significantly with the pace of reports about movement activity", so is almost an opposite answer from what you want. It doesn't give a bias to movement-related events; rather, it shows a lack of connection between them and economic factors. (Contrast answer A, which shows that newspaper editors might be biased.)

Hope this helps,
David

Hi. I also have a problem of why D is not the correct answer since as you noted; "it shows a lack of connection between them and economic factors." which answer choice D) does a good job of weakening the data presented in the text. Therefore it makes weakening process successful.

[Francis O'Rourke]

the classical theory anticipated a correlation between events in a social movement and economic changes. The "better test" in line 65 showed that there was no correlation between them.

This question asks us to weaken the "better test". That is, weaken the lack of correlation. Answer choice (D) merely restates what this "better test" found: there is no correlation between economic indicator and movement-initiated event.

[kevin.hussain24]

Hello,
Why is B wrong?

[Robert Carroll]

Kevin,

Answer choice (B) highlights the wrong problem with the press. The information the author wants out of the press is accurate information on civil rights movement activities. If the press reporting on those activities didn't correlate very well with the existence of those activities, then this better method would be anything but better. The economic indicators seem to be facts that rely less on press coverage, so there's no need to look to the press coverage to get an idea about these. Thus, if the press isn't reporting these indicators consistently, that doesn't constitute a gap in knowledge, because we'll have info about the indicators elsewhere. There WILL be a gap in knowledge if the press doesn't consistently cover the movement activities.

Robert Carroll