After graduating from high school, people rarely multiply fractions or

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.

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.

Posted from my mobile device

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 inferred from the premises given above?


So, in short, it is an inference question.

Hi Experts,

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

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

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

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.

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