When a society undergoes slow change, its younger members find great value in the advice of its older members. But wh...

Naz on December 6, 2014

Here we have a strengthen with necessary premise question. Remember that a premise is necessary for a conclusion if the falsity of the premise guarantees or brings about the falsity of the conclusion. First we check to see if the answer choice strengthens the passage, and then, if it does strengthen, we negate the answer choice to see if its negation makes the argument fall apart. If the answer choice does both those things then it is our correct answer.

Conclusion: We may measure the rate at which a society is changing by measuring the amount of deference its younger members show to their elders.

Why? When a society undergoes slow change, its younger members find great value in the advice of its older members. But, when a society undergoes rapid change, young people think that little in the experience of their elders is relevant.

Answer choice (C) states: "The deference young people show to their elders varies according to how much the young value their elders' advice."

Does this strengthen? Yes.

The argument has not connected how the way that young people value their elders' advice relates to the amount of deference its younger members show to their elders.

Answer choice (C) helps bridge this gap by explaining that the deference young people show to their elders varies in relation to how much the young value their elders' advice. Therefore, answer choice (C) connects the evidence that when a society undergoes change slowly, younger members find great value in the advice of its older members, whereas, when a society undergoes rapid change, young people think that little in the experience of their elders is relevant, thereby connecting that to our conclusion that we can measure the rate at which a society is changing by measuring the amount of deference its younger members who to their elders.

Negation: The deference young people show to their elders does not vary according to how much the young value their elders' advice.

Does the negation of answer choice (C) make the argument fall apart? Yes.

The negation states that the deference young people show to their elders does not have a relation to how much the young value their elders' advice. Thus, we no longer know how the argument is bridging its premise and conclusion.

If they do not vary according to each other, then we cannot conclude that the way we measure the rate at which a society is changing is by measuring the amount of deference its younger members show to their elders, since the amount of deference is not relative to the value younger people place on their elders' advice depending on how slowly or quickly a society is undergoing change.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Anna20 on July 23, 2020

I picked B for this question - why is that incorrect? C seemed like a repetition of the premises to me.

Thanks so much for the above?