Q25 - Tom: Employers complain that

[cyt5015]

The correct answer is D, however, I am confused by the statement that "undercuts an assumption on which Tom's argument depends." Is this assumption an unelicited one in Tom's argument? For example, he needs to assume that (1) there are plenty of part-time positions available for high school students to take, and (2) lacking of vocational skills is due to lack of part-time job training. Is my understanding correct? I thought for this type of argument strategy question, at least we need to determine that Tom really made those assumptions. Please help me here. Can you also provide some explanation on why other answers are wrong?

Thank you!

[christine.defenbaugh]

Great question cyt5015! You are absolutely correct that we need to be aware of which assumptions Tom is actually making.

These unusual forms of Analyze the Argument questions can throw us off if we aren't clear on our task. Procedure questions demand an understanding of the various ways arguments can be structured.

In this example, we cannot begin to understand Mary's argument until we first understand Tom's, which breaks down to this essential core:

Premises
Problem: students lack voc. skills post grad
Voc. skills best learned on the job

Conclusion
should require students get part-time jobs for voc. skills


This structure can also be thought of as:
Premise: problem
Conclusion: recommended solution

Tom's conclusion relies on the assumption, as a general matter, that his proposed solution will actually work to fix the problem. This broad umbrella assumption includes the assumptions that you raise: 1) that there are jobs out there for the students to get once we require it and 2) that the part time jobs in question would confer the vocational skills. If either of these things were untrue, Tom's recommended solution would no longer make sense.

Mary's response zeros in on exactly this issue. Specifically, she attacks the assumption that there are jobs out there for the students to get once work is required, thereby weakening Tom's argument considerably. "We shouldn't do your solution because it will fail." This matches (D) precisely.


What She Doesn't Do
(A) Mary does not raise an undesirable result of Tom's proposed solution. This type of answer would be correct if Mary's response had indicated that Tom's solution could work to solve the problem, but would create some new and different problem as a result. "We shouldn't do your solution because it kills unicorns."

(B) Tom clearly thinks the problem he cites is avoidable, otherwise he would not bother proposing a solution. Mary, however, does not respond by claiming that Tom is wrong because the problem is unavoidable. She simply thinks this particular solution won't work. She may still agree that a different solution would. "We shouldn't attempt your solution because the problem is unfixable."

(C) Mary does not attack the premises. She does not argue, for instance, the the problem is not really a problem. Nor does she argue that there is some better way to achieve vocational skills rather than on the job. "We shouldn't attempt your solution because the problem does not exist."

(E) Mary does not defend an alternative solution. She does not raise any alternative solution to the problem, merely attacks Tom's proposed one. "We shouldn't do your solution because mine is better."



Please let me know if that completely answers your question!