#14 - Political scientist: The economies of a number of

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen—PR. The correct answer choice is (B)

The author of this stimulus believes that, because Germany is the only one who can help the economies of neighboring European countries, Germany should help. The principle at work here is that if a country is the only one able to help its neighbors, it is obliged to do so. The question asks for the principle which most helps to justify, making this a strengthen question.

Answer choice (A): The author's point is not that Germany should be the only one to help, but rather that it is the only neighboring country in a position to do so.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice, as it strengthens the author's argument; if it is true that a country should help when able, this bolsters the author's conclusion that Germany should help its ailing neighbors.

Answer choice (C): The author's point is not to limit the number of nations to be helped by Germany, so this principle does not strengthen the author's conclusion in any way.

Answer choice (D): The author is not arguing that Germany should be the only nation to provide aid, but that there is an obligation for Germany to do so for its neighbors.

Answer choice (E): The stimulus does not establish whether Germany can only afford to aid a few nations, so this answer choice fails to strengthen and is thus incorrect.

[kristinaroz93]

"Political scientist: The economies of a number of European countries are currently in severe difficulty.."

Can we eliminate choice D based on the fact that it is a mistaken reversal?
The stimulus seems to have this kind of conditional reasoning: resources -->aid.

And answer choice D, however, seems to be diagrammed as follows (I could be wrong):
aid--> resources. (Since I put on the necessary side anything modified by the term only)

And I also found this explanation online in regards to choice d, "Again, this is out of scope. Our job is to determine whether a country like Germany, which is in a unique position to help, has an obligation to do so. Whether or not other countries not in that unique position provide help or not is irrelevant." Is it correct?

Essenitally what I infer, is that we need an answer choice that shows that Germany should help its neighbors because it is capable of doing so due to its financial standing, without eliminating the possibility that other nations can help as well if they so desire, but may not have the same qualifications as Germany. And so D basically goes too far in this regard, by making the scope too unnnecesarily narrow. Essentially, D would show that Germany has an obligation, but is way stronger of an answer than we need.

Is this too a valid way to analyze answer choice D and decide to ultimately elminate it?

[David Boyle]

"Political scientist: The economies of a number of European countries are currently in severe difficulty.."

Can we eliminate choice D based on the fact that it is a mistaken reversal?
The stimulus seems to have this kind of conditional reasoning: resources -->aid.

And answer choice D, however, seems to be diagrammed as follows (I could be wrong):
aid--> resources. (Since I put on the necessary side anything modified by the term only)

And I also found this explanation online in regards to choice d, "Again, this is out of scope. Our job is to determine whether a country like Germany, which is in a unique position to help, has an obligation to do so. Whether or not other countries not in that unique position provide help or not is irrelevant." Is it correct?

Essenitally what I infer, is that we need an answer choice that shows that Germany should help its neighbors because it is capable of doing so due to its financial standing, without eliminating the possibility that other nations can help as well if they so desire, but may not have the same qualifications as Germany. And so D basically goes too far in this regard, by making the scope too unnnecesarily narrow. Essentially, D would show that Germany has an obligation, but is way stronger of an answer than we need.

Is this too a valid way to analyze answer choice D and decide to ultimately elminate it?

Hello kristinaroz93,

Answer D does seem to be a mistaken reversal, basically, saying "If help is given, it must be from someone solely able to resuscitate neighbors economically", whereas B essentially says, "If someone is solely able to resuscitate neighbors economically, then help must be given".
The explanation you list above about "out of scope", doesn't seem to make much sense, though.

Hope this helps,
David

[kristinaroz93]

And why is A wrong?

[BethRibet]

Hi Kristina,

Thanks for writing!

The problem with "A" is the phrase "ought to be the only". What the answer choice needs to establish is that if a nation already is the only one that *can* help, then it should help. A is saying that other nations should not help, essentially, which doesn't help justify the argument.

Hope this clarifies.
Beth

[kristinaroz93]

And Isn't D saying the same thing? D: Only nations in a position to help should. And so all other nations should not?

[BethRibet]

Hi Kristina,

Yes, you're correct that that's a flaw in answer choice D as well. Thanks for following up!

Beth

[kristinaroz93]

Thank you Beth for all your help=)

[lunsandy]

Hi Powerscore

During the test I was contending between B and D and end up choosing the wrong answer D.

D is incorrect because it is saying only nations alone have the capacity to help, which it is essentially saying is when a nation is alone (no other countries) than that country has an obligation to help? Whereas, B is saying any nation alone that has the capacity to help. So the country alone, itself is strong enough, ought to help. I guess I misread the "alone" part and assumed D was saying something likewise of B.

[Eric Ockert]

Hi!

Actually the big difference between answer choices (B) and (D) is that they are just reversals of each other. This can be seen by the use of the word "any" (a sufficient indicator word) as a modifier in answer choice (B) and the use of the word "only" (a necessary indicator word) as a modifier in answer choice (D). The two rules would be diagrammed as:

Answer choice (B): Nation alone has capacity to resuscitate neighbors Should help resuscitate
Premise Conclusion

Answer choice (D): Should help resuscitate Nation alone has capacity to resuscitate neighbors
Conclusion Premise

Since the premise we are given is that Germany alone has this capacity, then that would meet the sufficient condition in answer choice (B) and therefore show that Germany should help resuscitate their neighbors (the conclusion of the argument).

With answer choice (D), our premise only shows us that Germany has met the requirement for helping resuscitate. This would not prove that they necessarily should help resuscitate.

Hope that helps!