SidBoy77 wrote:
GMATNinja I am able to understand that assumption should be something which links entertaining and intended function. Based on that I was able to eliminate option B,C and E. I was confused between A and D. I felt that option D is restatement of the conclusion "Under such circumstances, news is primarily entertaining and cannot, therefore, serve its intended function." Therefore, I marked option A. Is there any grey rule that statement containing "Should be" in Assumption question will not be correct in GMAT. Can you help me with my approach.
There sadly aren't any rules about using the word "should" in an assumption question. In fact, trying to memorize any such "rules" for CR questions is unlikely to be helpful -- you're almost certain to find questions that don't follow the "rule," and your accuracy will suffer.
Instead, carefully break down the passage and assess each answer choice.
In this passage, the author tells us that the intended function of news is "to give us information on which to act." However, our consumer society has created an "enormous industry for the production and consumption of news."
The author concludes from the above that "under such circumstances, news is primarily entertaining and cannot, therefore, serve its intended function."
The question asks us to find an assumption on which the argument
depends. In other words, which answer choice absolutely MUST be true in order for the conclusion to hold up?
Here's (A):
Quote:
(A) News that serves its intended function should not be entertaining.
The word "should" is very important to understanding this answer choice, even if there's no rule saying that an option with "should" is ALWAYS incorrect.
In the passage, the author talks about how the world
actually is. In this reality, the news cannot serve its intended function.
(A), on the other hand, talks about how the world SHOULD -- or
ought -- to be. According to (A), informational news
ought to follow certain guidelines.
Do we know how the author thinks the news
ought to be? No, we have no idea -- maybe the author longs for a world in which news can both be informational and entertaining at the same time. Or maybe the author thinks that news should be super boring and dry. Because the conclusion holds up regardless of what "should" be true, the argument does not depends on (A).
Compare that to (D):
Quote:
(D) News that primarily entertains does not give us information on which to act.
The author concludes that because news is primarily entertaining, it cannot serve its intended purpose.
But what if it could do
both of those things? Then the argument falls apart -- the news would be entertaining AND provide information on which to act at the same time.
(D) closes that gap by telling us that the news CAN'T do both at the same time. Because the argument falls apart without (D), we've found the assumption on which the argument depends.
I hope that helps!