Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions - - Question 15

The more television children watch, the less competent they are in mathematical knowledge. More than a third of child...

Joseph October 22, 2015

Why not C or D?

Hi, could you explain why C and D aren't correct?

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Naz October 27, 2015

The issue with (C) is that it doesn't strengthen the conclusion.

Remember, the conclusion is: if United States children are to do well in mathematics, they must watch less television.

Answer choice (C) discusses children WHO WANT TO DO WELL. We are not discussing what children who want to do well do as opposed to those who do not want to do well. Regardless of what these children want, we are looking to fid out whether watching less television is necessary in order to get children in the United States to do well in mathematics.

Answer choice (D) is there to trick you. Think about the conclusion we are looking to strengthen: if U.S. children are to do well in math, then they must watch less tv:

Conclusion: USCWM ==> LTV
not LTV ==> not USCWM

Answer choice (D) states: if children watch less TV, then they will do well in math.

(D): LTV ==> USCWM
not USCWM ==> not LTV

This does not help strengthen our conclusion. This is merely an incorrect contrapositive of our conclusion. Just because watching less TV is sufficient to do well in math concepts such as advanced measurement and geometry, that does not mean that watching less TV is NECESSARY to doing well in these areas, which is what the conclusion is purporting.

Thus, answer choices (C) and (D) do not strengthen the conclusion. Meaning, they are incorrect.

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

Joseph November 12, 2015

Thank you!