Strengthen with Sufficient Premise Questions - - Question 2
Photovoltaic power plants produce electricity from sunlight. As a result of astonishing recent technological advances...
ShannonOh22August 6, 2019
Question about quick tips on number Qs
When faced with a stimulus that involves numbers/percentages/age, (or all three), is it wise to scan the answer choices first and narrow down the options to ONLY those that also mention numbers/percentages/age?
In other words, have you found in all of your time looking at these types of questions (bless your hearts for that, btw ;), can we for the most part safely eliminate answer choices that don't include relevant figures, focus on those that do, and only if we do not find the correct answer in those selections, go back to the ones without figures in them?
I chose answer C for this question...mainly because I'm not a math person, and I read A and B, crossing both off as incorrect, and then WRONGLY assumed the answer must not include numbers.
However, I also found C to be a reasonable answer choice - it does strengthen the argument, and negating it would seriously call the argument into question...it follows logically that if the "astonishing recent technological advancements" made in PV electricity, which resulted in the significant cost reduction, are NOT found in TPs, PVs offer a less expensive approach.
When I get to the last part of my paragraph, I've come full-circle, and it is clear that D fills in the more necessary hole of providing information about what the cost used to be, to ensure the current cost is in fact lower.
So - my main question is the first one posed regarding answer choices with figures re: stimulus w/ figures.
Thank you!!
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Great question. When faced with a stimulus that involves numbers/percentages/age, I would never recommend scanning the answer choices first and narrowing down the options to only those that also mention numbers/percentages/age. There are two reasons I don't recommend this strategy:
1) It takes away your focus from the argument/stimulus, which is where ALL of your attention should be 2) Before thoroughly reading the stimulus, you have no idea how the numbers/percentages/ages is functioning in the argument. It could be brought up as background information/context. If so, then it might not even be relevant to the argument.
Now, let's look at (C) and (D) for this question.
(C) says, "None of the recent technological advances in producing electric power at photovoltaic plants can be applied to producing power at traditional plants."
You mentioned that negating (C) would seriously weaken the argument. That's right, and that's because (C) is actually a necessary premise. However, note that there's a big difference between necessary premises and sufficient premises. Necessary premises are premises that must be true in order for the argument to hold. In other words, if a necessary premise is false, then the argument falls apart, whereas sufficient premises are premises that, if we add them to the argument, automatically make the argument valid.
While (C) is a necessary premise, it doesn't make the argument valid. If the traditional plants can use the technological advances, the electric plants might not actually be cheaper.
(D) says, "Twenty years ago, the cost of producing electric power at photovoltaic plants was less than 10 times the cost of producing power at traditional plants."
Since photovoltaic plants cost 1/10th of what they cost 20 years ago, (D) would guarantee the conclusion that they cost less now. Thus, (D) is a sufficient premise and would make the argument valid.
Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions!
