12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 4: Language School Teache

Manhattan Prep Official Explanation

Step 1: Identify the Question

The word assumption in the question stem indicates that this is a Find the Assumption question.

Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument

A teacher is making an argument. It’s commonly thought that the older people get, the harder it is to learn a second language. But certain studies have found that adults who have moved to a city that uses another language are more likely to have developed true fluency in that language. The teacher seems to accept that older adults are in fact less likely to learn a second language but argues about the reason why, claiming:
(1) That language-learning ability doesn’t actually diminish with age (ie, conventional wisdom is wrong), and
(2) That the real explanation is that older adults are less likely to move to a new city to learn to speak a new language. (Let’s call these Second Language Cities from now on.)

Step 3: Pause and State the Goal

On Find the Assumption problems, the goal is to find something that the author does not state in the argument but must believe to be true in order to make the argument work. In other words, what is the author just assuming to be true without actually stating that it is true?

The teacher’s argument hinges on the results of the studies, but the information given about the studies doesn’t indicate anything about relative age (older adults vs. younger adults). Further, the studies don’t address when people developed fluency; it could be the case that they developed fluency first and then moved to the new city. So the teacher makes a big leap to conclude that people who move to Second Language Cities are moving in order to learn that language.

Step 4: Work From Wrong to Right

(A) First, the author’s argument addresses differences in age, but the studies mention only adults in general, not older adults vs. younger adults. Second, even if this choice were true, the question asks what the teacher assumes, not what the studies assume. The teacher definitely does not assume that older adults inherently have more trouble learning languages; the teacher concludes instead that older adults just don’t have as many opportunities to learn a second language.

(B) The argument addresses the difficulties of learning a second language in adulthood. This choice talks about those who learn a second language during childhood and compares that to learning a third language in adulthood. In other words, this choice is talking about the wrong group of people.

(C) CORRECT. This choice is really difficult to follow because it’s negatively worded. It’s saying that adults who move to a Second Language City do not already speak that new language proficiently. The author’s argument does state that older adults aren’t as likely to learn second languages because they can’t as easily move to a Second Language City—that is, the author is assuming that people who move to a Second Language City don’t already proficiently speak the language of that city.

A technique known as Negation can help you understand negatively-worded answer choices on Assumption problems (but don’t use this on other CR problem types).To use Negation, take out the negative word and reread the choice. What happens to the argument? If the answer choice is truly an assumption, then it is necessary to the argument, so negating it will make the argument fall apart:

“Adults who move to an area in which another language is predominantly spoken ARE not more likely to choose the location because they have already developed proficiency in that language.”

If these people have already learned the language before they move, then they don’t need to move in order to learn it. In other words, the teacher’s argument doesn’t make much sense now, because people aren’t moving to the new city in order to learn the language. Since negating this answer messes up the author’s argument, the answer must be an assumption the author is using to make the argument.

(D) The author assumes that older adults are less likely than younger adults to move to a Second Language City. This confusingly-worded choice says the opposite, that younger adults are less likely to move.

(E) It might be true that only a small percentage of all relocating adults choose a Second Language City. But this information doesn’t address the author’s argument regarding why older adults don’t develop true fluency in a second language as readily as younger adults do. In fact, this choice makes no distinction at all between older and younger adults.