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The author concludes that free speech policies can actually help to suppress unwanted speech because in open forum citizens self censor their most noxious opinions.

A. most citizens consider the right to free speech a cornerstone of democracy.

The option goes against the statement that people are likely to keep the most noxious opinions to themselves.

B. civil discourse is a bulwark against the tyranny of unilateral municipal decision making.

Out of Scope

C. unrestricted free speech increases the levels of rancor within a community more than polite discussions behind closed doors do.

A good option, however we are not concerned about rebuke here. Also, the aim is to only restrict any unwanted speech rather.

D. noxious opinions are frequently shared to elicit responses of terror and shock amongst peers.

Out of Scope

E. the possibility of another person openly rebutting an unpopular opinion can make an individual reconsider sharing that opinion.

I would go with E, as it tells why people would reconsider sharing an unpopular opinion and hence restrict unwanted speech.

IMO - E
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Providing an open forum for civil discourse can in some cases lead to certain citizens self-censoring their most noxious opinions. This phenomenon shows that free speech policies can actually help to suppress unwanted speech, since ________.

Well, the missing part starts with 'Since' and 'Since' is being used to offer an explanation or reasoning. So, we should find something that supports the conclusion "This phenomenon shows that free speech policies can actually help to suppress unwanted speech" Let's evaluate the options.


A. most citizens consider the right to free speech a cornerstone of democracy................................We are not talking about democracy in the argument. We are talking about how free speech can lead to self-censoring. reject it.

B. civil discourse is a bulwark against the tyranny of unilateral municipal decision making.....................Decision making is out of scope. Reject it

C. unrestricted free speech increases the levels of rancor within a community more than polite discussions behind closed doors do...........................We are concerned about how unrestricted speech leads to self-censoring and not concerned about increased levels of rancor. Reject it.

D. noxious opinions are frequently shared to elicit responses of terror and shock amongst peers.................It doesn't lead to the conclusion. Reject it.

E. the possibility of another person openly rebutting an unpopular opinion can make an individual reconsider sharing that opinion.....................this seems okay. If there is a probability of getting opposing views on an opinion then the person who is putting across the view will think multiple times before putting across his views. This will lead to self-censoring. Keep it.


IMO OA should be E
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The question leaves so many of its terms undefined that it's hard to guess even what it means. So I won't be surprised if the answer I find correct is different from the OA. What stands out to me most is the fact that the second sentence continues, with "since ____". It's not clear why the sentence needs to continue: the first sentence says people don't express noxious opinions, so it seems we can naturally then say (following the logic of the stem, anyway) that free speech policies suppress speech. The only reason we would need to continue that second sentence is if the specific phrase "unwanted speech" is important -- that is, we only need to say "since..." if "noxious opinions" and "unwanted speech" are not necessarily the same thing, and the sentence needs to further clarify why "noxious opinions" are "unwanted speech". We have no definition of "noxious opinions" and no definition of "unwanted speech" (unwanted by whom? who is writing this?) but the only answer that goes on to explain why "noxious opinions" might be "unwanted" is answer D, though again, just what speech is wanted and unwanted is a question of perspective, and we don't know what perspective we're meant to adopt when reading this argument.

The only other conceivable answer here is E, but answer E only goes on to explain why people self-censor, and we don't care why: the first sentence already tells us as a premise that people do that, and that's the only thing we need to know to justify the conclusion of the argument. E also changes the scope to "unpopular opinions", so it's hard to even know how it's relevant, so I hope E is not the OA here.
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I feared the "OA" would be E. If this were a real GMAT question, the answer would not be E, and if anyone studying this question is trying to prepare well for the real test, there is an important observation to make here. If a real GMAT question said something like:

Noxious opinions are suppressed. Therefore unwanted speech is suppressed, because ____

the single most important thing to notice is the shift, from the premise to the conclusion, from "noxious opinions" to "unwanted speech". Those don't necessarily mean the same thing. The conclusion only follows from the premise if they *are* the same thing (or if they at least overlap in some way). That's the information we're missing, and that's what needs to fill in the blank. We don't want to fill in the blank with some explanation about how noxious opinions are suppressed (if that's what we want, the blank should be at the end of the first sentence, not the second).

The OE to this question treats "noxious opinions", "unwanted speech", and "unpopular opinions" as if they were interchangeable phrases. Those three phrases aren't even remotely synonymous, and the GMAT would never be so careless with language as to use them as if they were. The OE (and the question itself) makes it seem test takers should ignore the scope changes (from "noxious" to "unwanted" to "unpopular"), but these scope changes are usually the single most important thing to pay attention to in a real GMAT CR question like this.
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