Computer checking lenght of word

[philanderer.lover]

Editor: We use the computer to check the length of our articles, but surprisingly there is good reason to believe that the word count it provides is inaccurate. Several times when an article's words were carefully counted by our most reliable copy editor, the resulting count differed from the count the computer gave

The editor's reasoning relies on which of the following assumptions?
A) the criteria that the computer uses in determining what constitutes a single word differ from the criteria that the copy editor uses
B) the inaccuracy of the computer's word count does not result from a malfunction of the computer itself
C) it would be possible to modify the computer so that it counted words more accurately
D) a careful count by the copy editor is unlikely to be less accurate than the computer's count
E) the accuracy of the computer's word count is not dependent on the length of the article that it is measuring

I am stuck bet choice B and D...please help me with this one...

[jitendra.havaldar]

should be D...

whats the OA?

[rajkapoor]

situation : article's length computed by computer is suspect.
reason cited: multiple careful counts by most reliable copy editor show a different length than from the computer.

Therefore the computer is possibly wrong in its calculation.

Reasoning: careful counting by most reliable copy editor produces an accurate measure to compare against any other counting source.

The editor's reasoning relies on which of the following assumptions?
A) the criteria that the computer uses in determining what constitutes a single word differ from the criteria that the copy editor uses

- "editor could say that we already know that fact and even after the final calculation, there is a diffference - such as one thermometer can give a reading in celsius while other in farenheit , each one will be considered correct in reation to each other as long as C to F conversion or vice versa equates to same value."


B) the inaccuracy of the computer's word count does not result from a malfunction of the computer itself

"editor will say , i dont care what is producing this inaccurate count from the computer , but i do know that it is producing inaccurate count and the reason could be 'malfunction of the computer or not "

Negating the statement -
the inaccuracy of the computer's word count results from the malfunction of the computer itself" - doesn't effect the argument - "editor could say - i knew that , i have believed it that was the reason"

so this statement is not necessarily true as it can go either way

C) it would be possible to modify the computer so that it counted words more accurately

"irrelevant - the point in question is whether computer counts accurately or not"

D) a careful count by the copy editor is unlikely to be less accurate than the computer's count

negate this -
"a careful count by the copy editor is unlikely to be as accurate as or more than the computer's count"

This makes the argument fall apart because copy editor is no longer reliable source for comparing accuracy - Hence correct

E) the accuracy of the computer's word count is not dependent on the length of the article that it is being measured

"editor would say - we dont care about what the computer's word count depends on,but we do care that it gives us correct counts.It may take into consideration whatever parameters it has to take to do so"
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at times it is hard to put thoughts into words , i tried

[Ben Ku]

Please cite the source (author) of this problem. We cannot reply unless a source is cited (and, if no source is cited, we will have to delete the post!). Thanks.

[philanderer.lover]

1000 CR

[RonPurewal]

Editor: We use the computer to check the length of our articles, but surprisingly there is good reason to believe that the word count it provides is inaccurate. Several times when an article's words were carefully counted by our most reliable copy editor, the resulting count differed from the count the computer gave

The editor's reasoning relies on which of the following assumptions?
A) the criteria that the computer uses in determining what constitutes a single word differ from the criteria that the copy editor uses
B) the inaccuracy of the computer's word count does not result from a malfunction of the computer itself
C) it would be possible to modify the computer so that it counted words more accurately
D) a careful count by the copy editor is unlikely to be less accurate than the computer's count
E) the accuracy of the computer's word count is not dependent on the length of the article that it is measuring

I am stuck bet choice B and D...please help me with this one...

as with pretty much all other arguments like this, it helps to SIMPLIFY THE ARGUMENT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

here is a simplified version of the original argument:
PREMISE 1: both the computer and a human editor counted the words.
PREMISE 2: these counts differed from each other.
CONCLUSION: therefore, the computer must be wrong.

in simplifying this argument, note that there are two principal difficulties: (a) we have to learn to separate and dispose of statements that don't contribute to the actual logic of the argument (such as "we use the computer to check..."), and (b) we have to identify premises and conclusion, so that we can place the conclusion at the end of the chain of logic, where it belongs.
once we do that, however, i think you'll agree that it's a lot easier to see what is relevant and what is not. you may even be able to predict the correct answer, if you simplify the argument enough.

from our simplified version, one objection that should come to mind rather quickly is, "why must it be the computer that is wrong? why couldn't the human editor be wrong?"
if you recognize that this is an issue, then you will see that (d) is the correct answer.

the reason why answer choice (b) is incorrect is because that choice is wholly irrelevant to the passage. we don't actually care WHY the computer's word count is inaccurate; all that matters is that the computer's word count IS inaccurate. even if this inaccuracy is due to, say, tinkering by little green aliens who have descended from outer space, the argument isn't changed a bit.

[750plus]

Dear Ron,

Can you please explain what's wrong with choice A.

Thank You!

[RonPurewal]

choice A goes the wrong way.

if choice A is true, then both counts could actually be "accurate", even though they result in different numbers.