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The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic

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Bunuel
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The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink] New post   30 Jan 2020, 04:33
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The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. It is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. After all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the Gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.

Which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument?


(A) It is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.

(B) What is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be, for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.

(C) The number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.

(D) The firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.

(E) Since a century far exceeds the normal human life span, people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.
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Re: The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink] New post   30 Jan 2020, 16:52
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Bunuel wrote:
The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. It is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. After all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the Gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.

Which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument?


(A) It is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.

(B) What is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be, for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.

(C) The number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.

(D) The firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.

(E) Since a century far exceeds the normal human life span, people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.


Correct answer: C

(A): Incorrect. The evidence that the argument uses is that the Gregorian calendar is one of many yardsticks employed to measure time. Therefore, in order to substitute the reason cited, the substitute reason must make reference to the way in which time is measured -- not to the utopian fantasies or apocalyptic anxieties.
(B): Incorrect. See (A): The reference must be to the measurement of time, not the anxieties/hopes.
(C): Correct. (C) correctly makes an analogy between the base-10 system (which creates the idea of a "century") to the Gregorian calendar, which measures centuries in a certain way.
(D): Incorrect. See (A) and (B).
(E): Incorrect. (E) compares the amount of time elapsed to a human's life span to a century; however, the original argument concerns the arbitrary nature of the Gregorian calendar (compared to other measurements of time).
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Re: The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink] New post   06 Jun 2020, 09:12
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Bunuel wrote:
The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. It is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. After all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the Gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.

Which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument?


(A) It is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.

(B) What is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be, for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.

(C) The number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.

(D) The firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.

(E) Since a century far exceeds the normal human life span, people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.


Information available with us
• End of centuries are believed to be either end of the world or the start of an ideal world
• The fallacy in this argument is that the end of the century is only according to the Gregorian calendar, while many people in the world use different calendars

Let’s analyse the options

A. Cannot be substituted, this option only states a claim while providing no logic. WRONG
B. The base argument is proving the possibility of a utopia/apocalypse. WRONG
C. Part of the reason why such extremes scenarios are predicted is because of the significance of the number. Could be true.
D. Doesn’t provide a logic. WRONG.
E. Again, doesn’t support the main argument.
Option C is correct.
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Re: The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink] New post   24 Aug 2022, 10:15
The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. It is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. After all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the Gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.

Which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument?

Quite a unique stem I must say.
It basically asks to replace the reasoning given behind the conclusion of the argument without disturbing it(conclusion).

(A) It is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time. - WRONG. Nowhere close.

(B) What is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be, for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears. - WRONG. May be possibility but it does not touches the reasoning in any sense.

(C) The number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created. - CORRECT.

(D) The firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen. - WRONG. Like B, this is also wasted effort.

(E) Since a century far exceeds the normal human life span, people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

Answer C.
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Re: The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink] New post   29 Aug 2023, 09:51
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Re: The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic [#permalink]
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