Hi naval.sheth, and dransa,

The prompt once more:
In order to learn to speak a foreign language, a person must practice effectively. The only effective way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones. A person can utter such sentences only by first making mistakes in that language that would appear foolish to fluent speakers of the language.

Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

GOAL:
This is an inference question, and inference questions specifically ask us to find an answer that we know FOR A FACT.

Here's the difference between A and B:

A. People who have learned to speak a foreign language will have appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
Read the option VERY carefully. Does the prompt tell us that the PEOPLE would appear foolish, or that the sentences would appear foolish? That's the difference. We aren't given any basis to comment on how the people making the sentences would look---only the sentences.

B.People who only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language.
Now, from the information highlighted in the passage, since we know that the only effective way to practice is by uttering original sentences, then that would mean that those who only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language. Therefore, given the facts from the prompt, we know this answer has to be true.
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I disagree with B). "The only EFFECTIVE way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones." Note the word EFFECTIVE. It implies that reciting memorized sentences is still possible, while not EFFECTIVE, to learn the language. Choice B) is wrong because it says that people who ONLY recite memorized sentences NEVER learn to speak the language.

The question contains two necessary condition markers in the sentence (eg: must,only) so we can use the "Sufficient /Necessary conditions" way to answer this question.

Sentence1: In order to learn to speak a foreign language, a person must practice effectively.
Must is a necessary condition marker and it modifies "practice effectively" so we can build a logical chain as:

LSF (learn to speak foreign language) -> PE (Practice effectively). (LSF is sufficient condition here)

Sentence2: The only effective way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones.
Only is a necessary condition marker and it modifies "uttering original sentences and Not reciting memorized ones".
The logical chain is:

PE -> UOS (utter original sentences, if we dont (ie ~UOS ) means we recite memorizes ones).

Sentence3: A person can utter such sentences only by first making mistakes in that language that would appear foolish to fluent speakers of the language.
Only is again a necessary condition marker here and it modifies "Makes mistakes that appear foolish". The logical chain is :

UOS -> MMAF (make mistakes appear foolish).

From the three sentences the complete logical chain is:
LSF->PE->UOS->MMAF
The contrapositive of this is: ~MMAF->~UOS->~PE->~LSF.

We need to look for the above two in the answer choices.

A. People who have learned to speak a foreign language will have appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
LSF->AF . This is wrong , we need to also make mistake to appear foolish. ie MMAF.

B.People who only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language.
~UOS -> ~LFS. This is a contrapositive and is correct. (~UOS means that we are reciting memorized sentences and not uttering Original sentences)

C.People who have not learned to speak a foreign language have not appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
~LF->~AF. This is wrong , it is wrong negation of the logic chain above.

D.People who do not make mistakes when uttering original sentences in a foreign language do not appear foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
MM->AF , this is what is given in the argument. and this choice talks about ~MM->~AF which is again wrong negation.

E.When combined with other exercises, reciting memorized sentences in a foreign language can be an effective means of practicing to speak that language.
Nothing mentioned about this in the argument.

please can anyone explain A is not the the answer......

I request the members to elucidate more on the "B".

Basically, i would like to discuss about wht mrblack wrote abt B.
I disagree with B). "The only EFFECTIVE way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones." Note the word EFFECTIVE. It implies that reciting memorized sentences is still possible, while not EFFECTIVE, to learn the language. Choice B) is wrong because it says that people who ONLY recite memorized sentences NEVER learn to speak the language.
I don't want to sound "thinking too much" here but this is how i would look at it.
The only effective way to practice <=> The only way that is (also)effective ,to practice.
In other words its the only way and its effective.Now if its the only way then B fits correctly here.
B.People who [color=#2e3192]only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language.[/color]

BTW I selected D but then it doesn't pass the fact test as argument just mentions that "A person can utter such sentences only by first making mistakes in that language that would appear foolish to fluent speakers of the language.". Arg doesn't mentions abt the scenario mentioned in
D:"People who do not make mistakes when uttering original sentences in a foreign language do not appear foolish to fluent speakers of that language."

The problems that people are having with B are sound, if it weren't for the first sentence. The first sentence clearly states that "In order to learn to speak a foreign language, a person must practice effectively." Thus the fact that it is effective is essential and without effective practice, the person would never learn to speak a foreign language. Thus, if they only recite memorized sentences, they will not practice effectively and they will not learn the language.
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To learn to speak= must practice effectively
Not practicing effectively= you won't learn to speak-(1)
only effective way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones
If you recite memorized ones= you are not following the "only effective way"to practice-(2)
from (1) and (2)
If you only recite memorized one= you won't learn to speak
B:)

After reading the stimulus it is evident that there is conditional language in the stimulus. As a result I depended on using conditional reasoning diagrams to approach answering the question stem.


Stimulus: In order to learn to speak a foreign language, a person must practice effectively. The only effective way to practice is by uttering original sentences in that language, rather than reciting memorized ones. A person can utter such sentences only by first making mistakes in that language that would appear foolish to fluent speakers of the language.

Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

This question is a main point question type (a sub-type of the must-be-true, question types). Before getting into the details of the diagram the conclusion I took away from the stimulus is that "The only effective way to practice is by uttering....rather than reciting memorized ones." As a result I focused on scanning for answers that addressed this:

The primary diagram I created: ONLY EFFECTIVE WAY Utter Original Sentences (OEW UOS) -> Rather than Memorize (RTM); contrapositive would be: Negated RTM -> Negated OEW UOS
I focused on this primary diagram which captured the conclusion rather than focusing on any of the prior or following sentences/premises.

A. People who have learned to speak a foreign language will have appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
Does not relate to the conclusion I have drawn above - focuses on the last sentence of the stimulus, which is a premise.

B.People who only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language.
This answer is correct; seems to match the contrapositive diagram above

C.People who have not learned to speak a foreign language have not appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
Again this answer choice focuses on the last sentence of the stimulus which is a premise

D.People who do not make mistakes when uttering original sentences in a foreign language do not appear foolish to fluent speakers of that language.
Again this answer choice focuses on the last sentence of the stimulus which is a premise

E.When combined with other exercises, reciting memorized sentences in a foreign language can be an effective means of practicing to speak that language.
The "other exercises" seems out of scope and not information that could be derived from the stimulus - so this answer choice is wrong.

Answer Choice C.

In all fairness - i got this answer choice wrong the first time. Reviewed it to assess what was wrong with my approach.

Agree to this completely. Could any experts weigh in? nightblade354 GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Only if a person makes mistakes first (which would appear foolish to fluent speakers), can he utter original sentences.
Only if he utters original sentences (rather than memorised ones), can he practice effectively.
Only if he practices effectively, can be learn to speak a foreign language.

In essence,
Making mistakes necessary for uttering originals. Uttering originals necessary for practicing effectively. Practicing effectively necessary for learning to speak foreign language.

A. People who have learned to speak a foreign language will have appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.

Appearing foolish is not necessary to learn a foreign language. Making mistakes is necessary and that would appear foolish to fluent speakers but one may not speak in front of fluent speakers.
Not necessary

B.People who only recite memorized sentences in a foreign language will never learn to speak that language.

Option (B) clearly says "people who ONLY recite memorised sentences" (so they don't speak original sentences). But original sentences are necessary practicing effectively and practicing effectively is necessary to learn a language. Hence, people who do not speak original sentences WILL NOT learn the language.
Correct.

C.People who have not learned to speak a foreign language have not appeared foolish to fluent speakers of that language.

Not necessary. Someone may have appeared foolish but still not learned the language. Appearing foolish is not sufficient to learn the language.

D.People who do not make mistakes when uttering original sentences in a foreign language do not appear foolish to fluent speakers of that language.

We don't know anything about people who do not make mistakes. They may still seem foolish due to their accent or something.

E.When combined with other exercises, reciting memorized sentences in a foreign language can be an effective means of practicing to speak that language.

We know that uttering original sentences is necessary for effective practice. We don't know what "other exercises" they are talking about.

Answer (B)
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Now, saying that "people would at least learn to speak the language, albeit not effectively" is to bring extra information from outside the argument, the magic lies in the first sentence of the argument.

"In order to learn to speak a foreign language, a person must practice effectively."

So, the argument is setting a premise that in order to learn-to-speak one has to practice effectively. Therefore this effectively word becomes necessary here.

Hope this helps.