Editorial: Last year, many polls found that most people in our country claimed to be tired of television news progra...

Mazen on August 6, 2022

Hi,

I noticed some errors in the wording in my post above. Please respond to this one instead.

E states: "Last year, at least some people responding to polls in the editorialist's country wished to be perceived as unwilling to watch television news programs."

Negation: Last year, none of the people responding to polls in the editorialist's country wished to be perceived as unwilling to watch television news programs. Correct?

Analysis:
Well, if none wished to perceived as unwilling to watch television news programs, then it must follow that when they said they were unwilling to watch such programs, they were portraying themselves as they actually are rather than as they wish to be perceived which contradicts the conclusion.

And since the negation causes the argument to fall apart by directly contradicting the conclusion, then it must follow that E, in its original non-negated form, is the correct answer-choice. Is my analysis correct?

As far as answer-choice B is concerned:

B states: "Last year, almost everyone in the editorialist's country who claimed in polls to be tired of television news programs' obsession with celebrity scandals and to be unwilling to watch such programs continued to watch those programs."

To me, B does strengthen the argument (please correct me if it does not), but is it necessary? No because: Analysis: Even if B is true, its negation tells us nothing about whether people like to be perceived as they wish rather than they are actually are!

I understand that the soaring rates in viewership does not have to be attributed to the poll takers. But although there is a gap between the pivot second sentence introduced by "But" and the conclusion introduced by "This indicates," B does not factor into that, not does its need NOT to factor to be wrong!

B NOT factoring in the gap between the soaring rates and the conclusion is irrelevant to being eliminated because, like the correct answer-choice, E, answer-choice B jumps right over the pivot in the second sentence, and attempts to connect directly to the conclusion.

B attempts to make us think that if almost everyone did NOT continued to watch (or only few did continue to watch), then people do NOT often portray themselves as they wish to be perceived, rather than as they actually are.

But perhaps almost everyone stopped watching despite the fact that they actually are attracted to shallowness but still want to be perceived contrary to their own actual inclinations.

In other words, the conclusion still stands in spite of almost everyone who was a poll taker not continuing to watch.

Is this reasoning acceptable?

Please and thank you
Mazen

Emil-Kunkin on August 8, 2022

Hi Mazen,

Completely agree with your thinking on E.

As for B, your reasoning as to it not being necessary looks spot on to me. I'm not certain if it would strengthen since it does not tell us anything about perception, but in a pinch I would be ok choosing it for a strengthen (but not with necessary) question