Assumption Questions

[jennavievejoa]

Hi there,

I'm a bit confused with the process of cancelling out answer choices with "negative" wording when dealing with logical reasoning assumption questions ( phrases like "there are no" "this does not.") Would someone be able to clarify how "negative" wording can influence assumption questions? Also, are there any tips to solve these questions with this type of wording?

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Jenna,

You could either see that sort of language in a stimulus or an answer choice, so I will address both possibilities in turn.

Let's imagine a potential stimulus. The last season of Game of Thrones was terrible, therefore there is no reason to think the spin-off won't be terrible.

The conclusion says there is NO reason to think the spin-off won't be terrible, but our premise only gave us one reason to suspect it will be. Therefore, we are assuming that every other possible reason the spin-off could be not-terrible won't apply. We are assuming there's no new writing team, better budget, better actors, and so on. So in this case the language "there is no" opens up a whole list of assumptions we have to make to draw that strong of a conclusion.

The other place we could see the "there is no" language is in the answer choices. There we would need to negate the answer choice, and put it in the stimulus to see if it weakens the conclusion. Negating that sort of language is, thankfully, fairly direct. Just take out the word "no."

"There is no honor in attacking the weak" becomes "there is honor in attacking the weak."

"There are no princes among thieves" becomes "there are some princes among thieves."

Please feel free to ask about specific questions if you see language that's hard to work with.

Hope that helps!