After graduating from high school, people rarely multiply fractions or

Question

After graduating from high school, people rarely multiply fractions or discuss ancient Rome, but they are confronted daily with decisions relating to home economics. Yet whereas mathematics and history are required courses in the high school curriculum, home economics is only an elective, and few students choose to take it.

Which of the following positions would be best supported by the considerations above?

(A) If mathematics and history were not required courses, few students would choose to take them.

(B) Whereas home economics would be the most useful subject for people facing the decisions they must make in daily life, often mathematics and history can also help them face these decisions.

(C) If it is important to teach high school students subjects that relate to decisions that will confront them in their daily lives, then home economics should be made an important part of the high school curriculum.

(D) Mathematics, history, and other courses that are not directly relevant to a person’s daily life should not be a required part of the high school curriculum.

(E) Unless high schools put more emphasis on nonacademic subjects like home economics, people graduating from high school will never feel comfortable about making the decisions that will confront them in their daily lives.

ID 16805

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

To Andrew's comments I'd add: the wording of the question itself matters. If, as above, the question asks what statement would be "best supported", then you're looking for something that could be reasonably concluded from the information given. If instead, as sometimes happens, a question says something like "based on the above, which of the following must be true?" then naturally you're looking for an irrefutable inference, rather than something that is simply a reasonable deduction. So if that's how the question is worded, you're looking for something much stronger than when a question merely asks what is "supported" by the passage.

So for example, if a stem told you the wholesale price of peanuts will increase a lot next year, and that peanut butter manufacturers pass on their costs to consumers, then it would be reasonable to conclude that the retail price of peanut butter will increase next year. That's not certain to be true, because other factors might counterbalance the increase in the cost of peanuts, but it's a reasonable prediction to make based on the information provided.

jpan · Answer

Confused among C and E but will choose to go with C.
The author is trying to argue for the importance of home economics. So concluding that math and history aren't important would be wrong. A and D eliminated. 
B says that Math and History could also help them face decisions that need home economics. This has no support from either premises. 
C and E both talk about importance of home economics in the high school curriculum, but E has a more extreme language. The word "never" is a bit of a stretch. 
Thus C looks best among the choices given.

IanStewart · Answer

Yes, it's definitely C. The stem is just a series of premises, so while it might be tempting to do so, one shouldn't conclude that the author is taking any particular position about the importance of teaching math and history, and the importance of teaching home economics. The stem just says that people use home economics a lot later in life, but most students don't learn it in school. Logically then, *if* it is important to teach in school things use a lot later in life, then home economics should be taught in school. That's what C says.

E definitely is not right -- it is far too extreme, and there's no way to know, for example, whether people can learn home economics skills at home, or after high school, say. You can't infer from the stem alone that people will "never feel comfortable" about life decisions just because they don't take a high school class.

Mansi89 · Answer

Although I chose C, can please anyone tell me what type of question is this? It’s not support type of question. I am confused.

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Atankshu · Answer

Question: Which of the following positions would be best supported by the considerations above? OR, you can rephrase it to: Which of the followings can be i nferred from the premises given above? So, in short, it is an inference question.

aarkay87 · Answer

Hi Experts,

What is the right approach to solve the inference question? Could you please apply in question under-discussion?

mSKR · Answer

Hi  AndrewN   AjiteshArun   VeritasKarishma

A clarification: 
Which of the following positions would be best supported by the considerations above?

For such inference questions, 
Do we need to find a piece of information that must be true based on information given in the argument ?
or 
We need to find a key point that can be derived from the argument?
or 
something which is not stated directly but can be suggested and can not be refuted.

Please share your approach for such questions. Should we verify each option with argument and check if each option can be true or false? 
Words such as may , should etc. would be preference so such questions? right?

Thanks  AndrewN   AjiteshArun   VeritasKarishma

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  mSKR . Here are my thoughts on your questions, as well as my advice on how to approach this particular question.

No, an inference question is not asking you to find what  must be true , only what seems  most likely  of the five options listed, on the basis of the information in the passage.

The inference might not have to be derived from an argument specifically, but from the passage as a whole.

I like the first part—an inference should not be stated directly—but  can not  is too strong, falling into a must-be-true track. I would say  least likely  to be refuted makes more sense.

In the question at hand, the passage essentially makes the case that  home economics  has practical application after high school but is not a required course, while other subjects may  rarely  come up after high school but are required for students to take.

We gain no insight from the passage into what students might of their own volition sign up for. This answer is purely speculative.

I think this would be a better trap answer without the second part. That is, the passage paints a negative picture of mathematics and history, in terms of their daily applicability to life (for  people  in general), so this answer choice seems off in casting the same courses in a positive light, and I think many test-takers would pick up on the latter clue. But not to be overlooked is the earlier overstatement that home economics would be  the most useful subject  to study. This notion is not supported by the passage. It only seems that a knowledge of home economics would help people in their daily lives more than that of mathematics or history.

There is nothing to argue with here. The passage supports everything within the conditional statement. Notice that there is no language in this answer choice that is too strong—home economics should be made  an important part  of the curriculum, not the  most  important part or some such.

Again, this is too strong. The passage is not calling for other subjects to fall by the wayside, only for home economics, by way of suggestion, to play a more prominent role in education than it does.

How many times can I say that something is too strong? Words such as  never  are almost always overreaching. We cannot  know  what high school graduates will  feel  about decision-making after graduation, with or without home economics at their back.

The process of elimination should help you considerably on this type of question. To reiterate, your goal is to find the answer choice that most logically follows from the information in the passage, not to prove anything.

I hope that helps you as you continue your studies. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

faat99 · Answer

OG ans B has a bad/wrong explanation, you don't choose B not because there is no indication of the math/history's usefulness (it is an assumption in the statement!).

But the fact that home economics is still "the most" subject for future daily problem, does not explain why people choose math/history over home economics.

The fundamental assumption is that we are assuming people go to school to learn tricks to deal with future daily mundane problem - which is not. ans C addresses this assumption may be flawed.

VerbalBot · Answer

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After graduating from high school, people rarely multiply fractions or

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