Q6 - Rotelle: You are too old to

[ND17]

why Not A and Not D?

[sumukh09]

A is out because Sims does not demonstrate anything. She just sidesteps everything Rotelle says and calls her a young'n.

D is out for similar reasons - Sims isn't really "showing" anything let alone that Rotelle's statements are self contradictory. Rotelle makes a claim and Sims doesn't address it at all her response.

[soyeonjeon]

Why is E better than B?

[fmuirhea]

Sims slyly manages to reference his opponent's age by claiming that he won't mention it (which, in effect, brings it up); this is a rhetorical device called paralipsis.

Rotelle claims that Sims is too old to understand the issues, but instead of addressing the legitimacy of Rotelle's claim, Sims just shoots back, "Oh, yeah? Well, you're young." That may well be true, but Sims still needs to respond to Rotelle's allegation that his age impedes his ability to understand the country's issues.

[agersh144]

Don't know if anyone recognize this quote from Reagan-Mondale debates but here's the clip, "I'm not going to make age an issue of this campaign, I'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience."

[JinZ551]

For A to be true, Sims has to indicate either he is not old, or even he is old, he is still able to effectively address the difficult issue. But Sims did neither of these. So A is out.

For B, Sims did mention the issue of age by saying "youth"

For C, Sims did not propose anything as to decide the importance of different issues.

For D, nothing in R's statement seems self-contradictory, and Sims did not mention anything close to self contradictory

For E, if S is to respond directly to R's claim, he would have to say something about his age or his ability to solve difficult social problems so as to argue back. But S avoided saying anything like that. So E is the correct answer.