Young people believe efforts to reduce pollution, poverty, and war are doomed to failure. This pessimism is probably ...

MichelleRod on July 25, 2018

Hey @Zahra thank you for your question

We're asked to find this statement on which the argument DEPENDS. That means we should be able to say the following about the correct answer "if this assumption is false, then the conclusion is must be false."

Answer choice B says "Enabling people to believe that better futures are possible will help prevent the loss of motivation that results from pessimistic beliefs about the future" If this statement were NOT true, then the conclusion "We must do what we can to prevent this loss of motivation and therefore must enable our children to believe that better futures are possible" could NOT be true

Answer choice A states "Motivating people to work to solve humanity's problems will enable them to believe that the future can be better and will cause them to be less pessimistic." In other words, action causes optimism. But this passage depends on an assumption whose casual arrow goes in the other direction. In other words, optimism causes action.That is why A does not work.