Professor Chan: The literature department’s undergraduate courses should cover only true literary works, and not such frivolous material as advertisements.
Professor Wigmore: Advertisements might or might not be true literary works but they do have a powerfully detrimental effect on society—largely because people cannot discern their real messages. The literature department’s courses give students the critical skills to analyze and understand texts. Therefore, it is the literature department’s responsibility to include the study of advertisements in its undergraduate courses.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which Professor Wigmore’s argument depends?
(A) Texts that are true literary works never have a detrimental effect on society.
(B) Courses offered by the literature department cannot include both true literary works and material such as advertisement.
(C) Students who take courses in the literature department do not get from those courses other skills besides those needed to analyze and understand texts.
(D) Forms of advertising that convey their message entirely through visual images do not have a detrimental effect on society.
(E) The literature department’s responsibility is not limited to teaching students how to analyze true literary works.

OA after some discussion.
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what are u bringing to the table?
Please, provide explanation.
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I went with E....but couldnt resist looking this one up and I am not happy with the OA

I think the answer is A.

The argument is based on the fact that students are given the skills to analyze and understand texts. Because ads have a detrimental effect if is the moral obligation (responsibility) of the department to also understand advertisements.

B) is clearly wrong as he is just including ads not saying one or the other

C) does not really matter in this case. Whether or not they learn other skills is irrelevant to learning skills to decipher ads messages.

D) Never does the passage say that the study of ads is just written ads. It may include visual ads as well

E) This is a hardest one to eliminate and this was actually the first answer I was drawn to. The problem I saw with the answer is that he does state that ads may or may not be literary works in his first sentence. Clearly that means in his mind some ads are literary works. Maybe those are the only ads he believes in teaching.

A) I believe this is correct because he infers that people cant decipher detrimental messages. If true literary texts carried detrimental messages the students would gain the ability to decipher the messages in all works, including ads. That fact that he states that its a responsibility to teach ads means infers that students are not receiving the knowledge to decipher detrimental messages by using "true" literary works in class.

I chose C.
Because literature dept students current skills are not sufficient to study the ads. - Assumption.

E - talks abt responsibility and I thought is different from assumption....

not sure though...

I think the answer is D...
According to me its a "Defender" Assumption . Those who have read powerscore CR bible may understand what "Defender" assumption means . I think the question is along similar lines.

conclusion::it is the literature department’s responsibility to include the study of advertisements in its undergraduate courses.
k..use assumption negation technique::
a)Texts that are true literary works have a detrimental effect on society- k does not hit the conclusion
b)Courses offered by the literature department can include both true literary works and material such as advertisement- this strengthens the conclusion - move on
c)Students who take courses in the literature department do get from those courses other skills besides those needed to analyze and understand texts-does not hit the conclsion
d)Forms of advertising that convey their message entirely through visual images do have a detrimental effect on society-advertising that convey blah blah have a neagative effect again does not hit the agrument
e)The literature department’s responsibility is limited to teaching students how to analyze true literary works-if this is the case then it exempts the lit deptt from including advertisement this weakens the conclusion and hence should be the ans ..
so i pick option E
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So...summing up.- We have As, Cs, Ds, and Es...

Any more takers?? A clue: OA is none of the above...
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what is the OA? B?

The answer must be E, it's the only one whose negation makes the argument fall apart.
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