vasant111
A telefilm was exhibited to a group of school going children. The telefilm contained characters who harmed others either deliberately or accidentally. When the children were questioned on the appropriate punishment for these different characters, they suggested same punishments, equally, for all those who caused harm whether intentionally or otherwise. So, it is clear that children children do not go into intentions of a criminal to determine the degree of punishment to be awarded.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weakens above conclusion.
(A) The children suggested punishments according to the severity of the harm done by characters.
(B) The older among the children suggested punishments that were similar to the ones suggested by adults in similar cases.
(C) Younger children are as likely to cause harm to others as older children.
(D) Interpretation of the film requires maturity, to be able to distinguish between committed intentionally or otherwise.
(E) The film depicted the severity of the crime clearly.
Quote:
Hi Mike, I am not able to understand how option A is incorrect & option D is correct. Can you kindly clarify my doubts. I will be highly thankful to u .Regards, Fame
First of all, I don't know whether you read
carcass' thorough explanation here. I thought
carcass did a good job analyzing this question.
(A) is a peculiar answer, because it directly contradicts the evidence in the argument. The argument says, "[the children]
suggested same punishments, equally, for all those who caused harm."
(A) implies the children suggested different punishments, not the same. Right there, this is the mark of a poorly written question. On the GMAT, the CR answer choices will add new information or clarify, but will never directly contradict the evidence.
Having said that, I agree with what
carcass said. Suppose;
Character A causes a mild bruise by accident
Character B causes a mild bruise on purpose
Character C causes someone to lose a limb by accident. (
Oops!)
Character D causes someone to lose a limb on purpose. If we were judging by intention, we would give the severest punishment to D, and relatively severe to B, whereas we would consider the non-intentionality a strongly mitigating factor for C, and probably we would let A pass without comment. In the real worlds, D would clearly be a felony, and depending on circumstances, B might be considered the felony of assault. C might be tried under something like "recklessness", or it were purely accidental, not the result of reckless behavior, it would be handled only in the civil courts. A has no place at all in the court system.
By contrast,
(A) suggest the kids would punish C & D the same, and would punish A & B the same. In other words, they are totally ignoring the issue of intentionality, which is precisely what the argument says.
The conclusion of the argument is: "
It is clear that children children do not go into intentions of a criminal to determine the degree of punishment to be awarded." The phrasing "
go into" is regrettably informal and imprecise. Also, is punishment really "
awarded"? Congratulations, you win this punishment? This question is nowhere near GMAT-level material. Presumably, what this conclusion means is: "
Children choose not to give any consideration to a criminal's intention when they determine the appropriate degree of punishment." What weakens this conclusion?
(D) says, essentially, because the telefilm was sophisticated, children simply didn't understand the intentions of the characters. It's not that they could recognize the intentions and chose not to take them into consideration, as the (clarified) conclusion suggests. Rather, they just didn't understand intentions at all. All they could see were the instances of harm, so they treated accidental harm and intentional harm the same.
Part of what made this a challenging question is that it was of such poor quality.
Let me know if anyone reading this has any questions.
Mike