Q19 - Like a number of other articles

[acechaowang]

I know why answer B is right, but I am not able to confidently eliminate answer E, could anyone give some strong reason to eliminate E? Thanks a lot!

[ohthatpatrick]

The real measure of whether an answer is correct on a question like this is just, "Did the author do/say this?"

(B) is correct because we can say that the author DID undermine a conclusion drawn from statistical data (i.e. "the survey data do not establish that financial problems are the major problem") by offering an alternative explanation (i.e. "couples express other marital frustrations in financial terms").

With (E), we can definitely say that the author undermined a conclusion (as we did with B). Can we point to a point in the passage when the author said that "couples cannot accurately describe their own problems"?

We would have to try matching that up with the claim that "couples express other marital frustrations in financial terms".

I guess that expressing a non-financial marital frustration in financial terms IS an inaccurate way of describing the problem.

But saying couples CANNOT express their problems accurately is different from saying that couple DO NOT express their problems accurately.

The farthest we could stretch the author's text would only show that couples often DO NOT express their problems accurately.

He never comments on whether they lack the capacity to do so.

Hope this helps.

[stm_512]

Why is D wrong?

Doesn't the stimulus imply that the statistics in Raghnall's article are misleading?

[ohthatpatrick]

The author criticizes the interpretation of the survey, but not the survey itself.

To criticize the actual survey, you'd have to be saying things like, "The people surveyed were not a representative sample"
"The questions asked were leading questions"
"The respondents were motivated to lie"

The author accepts the survey's data, but resists the author's interpretation of it as grounds for believing that financial problems are the major problem in marriages and a huge cause of divorce.

(A) There is no counterexample offered (a couple with financial problems who stayed together?)

(C) Nothing the author talks about discusses the un-provability of emotion. The author might be saying that THIS survey's respondents are confusing emotions with other reported problems. But the author never attacks a survey's overall ability to measure such a thing.

[JinZ551]

Just wanted to write down my thought process for this question.

I have picked the wrong anwer choice D, however, when I reviewed this question and the stimulus, I found that I did not notice the shift appeared in Raghnall's argument, which is attacked by the author.

Raghnall's argument:
money is the major problem in marriage ---> Financial problems are the major problem in marriage.

Here we should notice that in Raghnall's argument, there is a shift from "MONEY" (fact, survey result) to "Financial problem" (Raghnall's interpretation)

Author's argument:
couples express OTHER TYPES of marital frustration in financial terms ----> survey data do not establish that financial problems are the major problem in marriage (which means Raghnall's conclusion unfounded.)

Here "financial term" means money, which means "money" does not necessarily indicates "financial problem", can also be "OTHER TYPES of marital
frustration"

A: author did not offer any specific counter example, eliminate
B: correct, while Raghnall interprets "money" to be "financial problems", the author suggest an alternative explanation to be "other types of marital frustration”
C: The author is not critizing the use of statistical method, eliminate
D: The author is not critizing the survey, but attacking Raghnall's interpretation of survey data
E: Like the post above, "cannot" is unsupported.