Jorge: You won't be able to write well about the rock music of the 1960s, since you were just an infant then. Roc...

Naz on March 19, 2015

Jorge's point is that Ruth will not be able to write well about the rock music of the 1960s since she was an infant and rock music of the 1960s was created by and for people who were then in their teens and early twenties.

Ruth responds by drawing a similar analogy to living writers who write well about ancient Roman culture, which is far more removed than the 1960s to the present, even though those writers were clearly not a part of ancient Roman culture.

Thus, Ruth draws upon an analogy to show that Jorge's claim that Ruth's youth makes her unable to write well about music of the 1960s is absolutely absurd.

So, answer choice (D) is our answer: "offering an analogy," i.e. writers of today can write well about ancient Rome, "to counter an unstated assumption of Jorge's argument," i.e. that youth makes one unable to write well about music of a time they were not a part of.

Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

jacaroe on July 12, 2017

But the second part isn't unstated since he blatantly says that she isn't part of the demographic the music was written for right?

Mehran on July 21, 2017

@jacaroe the unstated assumption is that being an infant when rock music of the 1960s was created makes one unable to write well about it.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

ROGERIO-CARVALHO on March 18, 2021

I have gotten this question right, but when I went to the answer choices I had in my mind that R had used a counterexample, not an analogy, since she cites a specific instance where the implicit assumption made by J becomes impossible to be applied.

What made me get the question right was the second part of the answer choice, but I was not 100% to be picking the right answer choice, because it says analogy and not counterexample.

Can someone help me understand why that was not a counterexample, but an analogy?

Thank you,

Victoria on April 10, 2021

Hi @ROGERIO-CARVALHO,

Happy to help!

A counter example would be an example that directly counters Jorge's argument. One example of this would be if Ruth said, "I would be able to write well about the rock music of the 1960s because Jeff is the same age as me and is able to write well about this music." This provides a counter example of someone who was an infant in the 1960s but is still able to write well about rock music from that time period.

Ruth uses an analogy because she compares Jorge's reasoning to an equally absurd situation. She compares Jorge's reasoning to concluding that no one can currently write well about ancient Roman culture because no one alive today was also alive during that time period.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

ROGERIO-CARVALHO on April 10, 2021

It does, thank you for the clarification!