Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much

Question

Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much research experience they have, and how successful their previously published papers regarding that research have been. Novice scientists are familiar with the most updated materials and thus conduct their research with knowledge of more modern approaches and theories. It is unfortunate for the future of scientific knowledge that these novice researchers are denied access to grants because of what amounts to a seniority system.

Which of the following serves as an assumption in the argument above?

A. Most novice scientists believe that the seniority system has a negative effect on scientific knowledge.
B. Most experienced scientists have no serious interest in adding to general scientific knowledge.
C. Novice researchers should be given their fair share of grant money.
D. Experienced scientists do not keep themselves informed of updated approaches and research methods. 
E. The future of scientific knowledge relies only on the research of scientists.

Carcass · Answer

Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much research experience they have, and how successful their previously published papers regarding that research have been.  Novice scientists  are familiar with the most updated materials  and thus conduct their research with knowledge of more modern approaches and theories.  It is unfortunate for the future of scientific knowledge that these novice researchers are denied access to grants because of what amounts to a seniority system.

Which of the following serves as an assumption in the argument above?

A. Most novice scientists believe that the seniority system has a negative effect on scientific knowledge.
B. Most experienced scientists have no serious interest in adding to general scientific knowledge.
C. Novice researchers should be given their fair share of grant money.
D.  Experienced scientists do not keep themselves informed of updated approaches and research methods.  
E. The future of scientific knowledge relies only on the research of scientists.

Good question. If you stay close to the argument the assumption is there, fairly easy to spot.

D is the answer. The others are out of scope or far apart

Siddharth120 · Answer

D. Experienced scientists do not keep themselves informed of updated approaches and research methods.

D is the answer because it defends the argument from any type of attack that will if reversed state experienced scientist's too are informed of updated approaches and research methods which shatters the conclusion.

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

Can someone please justify why E is wrong here . 
My conclusion is : It is unfortunate for the future of scientific knowledge that these novice researchers are denied access to grants

negation of E shatters this

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much research experience they have, and how successful their previously published papers regarding that research have been. Novice scientists are familiar with the most updated materials and thus conduct their research with knowledge of more modern approaches and theories. It is unfortunate for the future of scientific knowledge that these novice researchers are denied access to grants because of what amounts to a seniority system.

Which of the following serves as an assumption in the argument above?

A. Most novice scientists believe that the seniority system has a negative effect on scientific knowledge.
B. Most experienced scientists have no serious interest in adding to general scientific knowledge.
C. Novice researchers should be given their fair share of grant money.
D. Experienced scientists do not keep themselves informed of updated approaches and research methods. 
E. The future of scientific knowledge relies only on the research of scientists.

An assumption is an unstated premise which connects the conclusion of the argument with the other premises and justifies the conclusion.
Two types of assumption are: supporters and defenders. Supporters are those which support the conclusion by adding relevant bridge between the preminses and conclusion and a defender is the premise that negates any alternate reason other than those mentioned in the arguments.

in the Above argument option D is a supporter type assumption as it supports the conclusion by giving that only new scientist have new knowledge and old scientist do not have new information. Thus option D is correct.

prototypevenom · Answer

same, can any experts help?

C and E both destroy this conclusion and also logically correct assumptions

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Careful,  prototypevenom . There's no such thing as a "logically correct" assumption. The whole point of an assumption is that it is something missing from the argument that would be  needed  for it to succeed. We can't ever say that an assumption is correct.

As for C and E, while they might seem to line up with the author's sentiments, neither of them is needed for the argument to succeed because they go further than the argument requires.

C says that novice scientists should get their "fair share," but we don't really know what that means, or how that lines up with the author's proposal. While the author seems inclined to give new scientists a lot of money, we don't know what this should amount to proportionally. All the author asks is that novices not be DENIED ACCESS to grants. There's nothing there about enforcing a certain allocation.

E features the very restrictive word "only." It's not necessary for scientific progress to rely SOLELY on researchers for this argument to succeed. The author merely assumes that scientific research plays SOME role in scientific progress.

Adithyav99 · Answer

Isn't D an extreme option here, all experienced scientists lacking information, 
In comparison I felt B was a better choice almost conveying the similar message with "Most" usage ..

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Adithyav99

Be careful any time you find yourself comparing two choices and choosing one that's "better." There should be one right answer and four wrong ones, so if the right answer just seems "better," something has gone wrong. In this case, notice that B is about something totally different than the passage is talking about--the *interest* that researchers have in contributing to scientific knowledge. The passage is not addressing, and doesn't rely on, the underlying motivations of the scientists. (Maybe they just do it to make money, but so what? The author is focusing on results!) In any case, if we negate B and find that experienced scientists ARE interested in advancing science, that doesn't hurt the argument at all, because it doesn't address whether novice scientists are qualified and being unfairly left out, as the argument suggests.

Meanwhile, D addresses the missing piece of the argument. The author says that novice researchers are up to date on the research, arguing that this gives them knowledge of "more modern approaches and theories." But that's only true if experienced researchers are NOT up to date on research. That's the exact assumption that D is spelling out. If we negate D, then the experienced scientists ARE up to date. If so, the argument that we should make room for newer folks with more modern approaches no longer holds up.

Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much

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Experimental scientists are often awarded grants based on how much

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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