Shy adolescents often devote themselves totally to a hobby to help dis

IMO B.
Assumptions are unsaid premises. They are those missing links that would complete the story. Everything moves fine till we encounter lasts sentence. That seems a bit out of place. Stem says that shy kids develop hobbies---> hobbies help them find friends ---> is they loose hobby then loneliness increases (fine) ---> Therefore, hobby is not a good idea?? Well there is a missing link between the last two lines.

And see that B is the only option that fits there. Hobby decreases loneliness---> loss of hobbies decrease loneliness---> any strategy that has a risk of intensifying loneliness isn't a good strategy---> Therefore, hobby isn't a good strategy.

Makes sense, doesn't it!

Hey All,

You got to the right answer, for the right reason, already, so I only have one thing to add. The way to improve generally at CR is to start to recognize patterns in both the passage structures and the answer choices. For what it's worth, this question falls into one of the 4 categories we separate out within the greater category of "assumption" questions.

The first category (represented in this question) is "logic gap". Just as honeyrai so efficiently explained, there is a syllogism here with a missing piece. In case you've forgotten, a syllogism is a logical argument that works in this way: If a = b and b = c, then a = c. Logic gap questions tend to say a = b, so a = c, and we lose out on that important b = c part. If you start to recognize this as a pattern that comes back again and again, you're more likely not to fall for a trick or trap.

Word up.

Hope that helps!

IMO B
Explanation. Shy adolescents devote to hobby to distract from loneliness.
Sometimes they make friends who share hobby. ( Decreases Loneliness ).
Sometimes loose interest -> loneliness increases.

Conclusion: All consuming hobby is not best strategy for overcoming loneliness.

A. It is out of scope as WIDER CIRCLE OF Friends is not mentioned
B. Since the loneliness is increasing as a result of hobby so this is the assumption behind the conclusion.
C. It is not mentioned that loss of interest in hobby is due to not making friends.
D. Out of scope.
E. It is not mentioned in the passage that adolescents devote to hobby is to make friends.

can any one explain B meaning :
(B) No successful strategy fro overcoming adolescent loneliness ever intensifies that loneliness.

i understood from B is that there are no stratigies will make the loneliness more sever . is my translation correct ? if it is not , why not correct ?

thanks

No, your interpretation is not correct. B is saying that no SUCCESSFUL strategies will make the loneliness more severe (intense) and that single word "successful" is very important.

Remember that assumptions fill the gaps in the logic from premise to conclusion. The premise is that the hobby strategy may cause intensified (more severe) loneliness THEREFORE it cannot be a successful strategy. Why can't it be successful? There seems to be some benefits. In order to believe that because of the intensified loneliness it can't be a successful strategy we have to assume that successful strategies will NOT ever make loneliness more intense (severe).

Hope that helps!
KW
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The author concludes that "developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness." How does the author arrive at that conclusion?

• If an adolescent is shy, his/her shyness can cause loneliness.
• To distract themselves from the loneliness, shy adolescents often immerse themselves in an all-consuming hobby.
• Sometimes, those adolescents meet others who share the same hobby and develop friendships with those other people.
• For example, two shy adolescents might become friends because they both enjoy playing the same video game.

But what if those adolescents lose interest in the hobby?

• The friendship between the two shy adolescents, for example, was based on enjoying the same video game.
• If one person no longer enjoys that video game, the friendship will likely fall apart.
• Now the shy adolescents will feel lonely again... maybe even more so than before because they had a friend and lost him/her.
• In other words, the loneliness can be exacerbated, or intensified.

So developing an all-consuming hobby can certainly intensify the adolescents' loneliness. Because of this, the author concludes that developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness.

But does the fact that the strategy might intensify the adolescent's loneliness mean that the strategy will not help the adolescent overcome the loneliness?

• What if the intense loneliness actually helps the adolescent overcome the loneliness?
• For example, maybe the intensified loneliness was so bad that it motivates the adolescent to face his/her shyness and try to talk to more people.
• In that case, a strategy that intensified the loneliness could also help overcome the loneliness.
• This example would expose a flaw in the argument.
• Choice (B) eliminates this possibility, so it is a required assumption.

Choice (C) talks about what happens if the adolescents do NOT make friends through that hobby.

• Perhaps the adolescents won't lose interest if they don't make any friends through that hobby.
• In that case, they would remain distracted from their loneliness, but they will not overcome their loneliness.
• More importantly, the argument focuses on what happens when they DO make friends through the hobby.
• The hypothetical situation described in choice (C) does not NEED to be true for the argument to hold. Eliminate (C).

(B) is the best answer.
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The argument is that developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy to overcome loneliness.
This is because:
p1: kids devote themselves fully to the hobby to distract themselves.
p2: they make friends in that hobby (overcoming the loneliness)
p3: if kids lose interest in that hobby, their loneliness worsens

The gap in logic is one that ties new terms "successful strategy" to the success/fail criteria we are presented i.e. "kids lose interest, worsening loneliness"

B does this.

You could negate B if you really need, but B is the only answer that ties in the new information presented.

B negated: some successful strategies for overcoming loneliness do intensify that loneliness --->Weakens the argument

Hi VeritasKarishma GMATNinja jennpt
can you please let me know how to eliminate D?

Shy adolescents often devote themselves totally to a hobby to help distract them from the loneliness brought on by their shyness. Sometimes they are able to become friends with others who share their hobby. But if they lose interest in that hobby, their loneliness may be exacerbated. So developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness.

Which one of the following assumptions does the argument depend on?

(A) Eventually, shy adolescents are going to want a wider circle of friends than is provided by their hobby.
(B) No successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness ever intensifies that loneliness.
(C) Shy adolescents will lose interest in their hobbies if they do not make friends through their engagement in those hobbies.
(D) Some other strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness is generally more successful than is developing an all-consuming hobby.
(E) Shy adolescents devote themselves to hobbies mainly because they want to make friends.

Answer:

Premise #1: Shy adolescents devote to hobby to distract from loneliness.
Premise #2: Sometimes mutual hobbies help them make friends.
Premise #3: If interest in hobby is lost, loneliness may increase.
Conclusion: Developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy.

A -> This answer choice does not address the issue of the strategy that is discussed, which is to develop an all-consuming hobby. It may be true that eventually many friends are what are needed to avoid shyness, but that is not part of the argument.

B -> This is a contender. A successful strategy is one that does not intensify the loneliness. However, we know from the argument that the strategy of developing a hobby and then losing interest in it may / may not exacerbate loneliness.

C -> This may be true, however, the opposite of this can also be possible, wherein shy adolescents may lose interest if they make friends as well. This does not really defend the argument.

D -> It may be true that another strategy is generally successful, but does not help us with being able to draw the conclusion that developing an all consuming hobby then is not a successful strategy.

E -> Again, fair enough. But this also does not guarantee that they might not eventually lose interest and then subsequently end up feeling more lonely.

Therefore, the answer is B.

Hey Tommy!

Could you possibly elaborate more on the CR patterns of GMAT or share a link where the same is addressed?

Thanks in advance!

Option D: Some other strategy is more successful.
Negation: No other strategy is more successful.
If no other strategy is successful, that doesn't make all-consuming hobby strategy successful.
Hence conclusion is not affected by the negation. Hence its not an assumption.

Hello TommyWallach
In this thread you mentioned that there are couple of categories of Assumption questions one of which is 'Logic gap'. What are the other categories, please? I struggle a lot with CR. I think identifying pattern will be helpful for me too.
Look forward to hearing from you.

Clear B because it fills the logic gap. the argument's reasoning is that it is not a successful strategy because it exacerbates the loneliness. Thus the assumption is that a successful strategy cannot exacerbate loneliness.

Hi,
can you pls put out the other categories as well?

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