Bunuel wrote:
Director of Foreign Language School: We should stop giving our students the La Langue Facile tape series and begin to distribute the Les Bons Mots series instead.
Assistant Director: Why?
Director: Because it takes 31 percent more time for teachers to prepare lessons using the La Langue Facile tape series than it takes for teachers to prepare lessons using the Les Bons Mots tape series. This time would be better spent working directly with students.
Assistant Director: That is not a sufficient reason to change instructional tapes. We can simply hire teachers who already have planned lessons based on the La Langue Facile tape series.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the assistant director’s objection to the argument made by the director?
A. All teachers in the school district are currently required to attend classes to learn how to adapt the La Langue Facile tapes to new educational standards.
B. Once teachers have made lesson plans, they are more willing to move from their current positions to positions with new language schools.
C. Teachers with established lesson plans hired by foreign language schools are required to put in additional hours in administrative support, hours equal to the
time they would have spent in making lesson plans.
D. The average improvement in scores on tests of fluency in the director’s school is below the average improvement in standardized test scores in otherwise comparable schools.
E. The supplemental course materials required for use with the Les Bons Mots tape series require teachers to invest a great deal of time in logistical arrangements, such as arranging for videocassette recorders and photocopying quizzes.
PRINCETON REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
C
We need to attack the assistant director’s argument. He proposes to hire teachers who have La Langue Facile lesson plans instead of changing to a less time-intensive instructional tape series. If we can show that his plan would not have the desired result of allowing teachers to spend more time with their students, we will have weakened his argument.
(A) No. Class requirements and new educational standards are out of scope.
(B) No. If anything, this answer choice would strengthen the assistant director’s argument, because it indicates that his plan may be somewhat easy to implement.
(C) Yes. The assistant director wants to hire teachers who already have La Langue Facile lesson plans because he assumes they will have more time to spend with students. But here we find out that those teachers will just have to use that lesson-planning time somewhere else. This weakens the assistant director’s argument.
(D) No. Fluency test scores and students’ performance are out of scope.
(E) No. This just tells us why switching to Les Bons Mots may not save time. Be careful. This answer choice weakens the director’s point of view, not the assistant director’s.