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az780
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 04 Dec 2007, 15:10
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shortening of the average workday from twelve hours or longer to less than eight hours. Mindful of this enormous increase in leisure time over the past century, many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history, and that, therefore, prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.

We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

Which of the following, if true, would most greatly strengthen the argument made in the passage above?


(A) In recent decades, the economy of the Mbuti has been markedly affected by the encroachment of modern civilization.

(B) The life-style of the Mbuti is similar to that of prehistoric humans.

(C) The Mbuti have no words in their language to express the distinction between work activities and leisure activities.

(D) The workday of a European peasant in medieval times averaged between eleven and fifteen hours.

(E) The members of the Shaklik tribe in central Asia have an average workday of ten to twelve hours.
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B
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 04 Dec 2007, 20:22
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az780
In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shortening of the average workday from twelve hours or longer to less than eight hours. Mindful of this enormous increase in leisure time over the past century, many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history, and that, therefore, prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.
We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

Which of the following, if true, would most greatly strengthen the argument made in the passage above?

(A) In recent decades, the economy of the Mbuti has been markedly affected by the encroachment of modern civilization.
(B) The life-style of the Mbuti is similar to that of prehistoric humans.
(C) The Mbuti have no words in their language to express the distinction between work activities and leisure activities.
(D) The workday of a European peasant in medieval times averaged between eleven and fifteen hours.
(E) The members of the Shaklik tribe in central Asia have an average workday of ten to twelve hours.
Show more


I would have gone for (B).

Conclusion: Prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.

Assumption:many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history

Also, the passage states:
We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities.

If we can link primitive people of today, for example the Mbuti of Central Africa to the prehistoric humans, the argument is strengthened. (B) gives us the connection. Curious to know the OA.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 05 Dec 2007, 07:06
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az780
In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shortening of the average workday from twelve hours or longer to less than eight hours. Mindful of this enormous increase in leisure time over the past century, many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history, and that, therefore, prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.
We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

Which of the following, if true, would most greatly strengthen the argument made in the passage above?

(A) In recent decades, the economy of the Mbuti has been markedly affected by the encroachment of modern civilization.
(B) The life-style of the Mbuti is similar to that of prehistoric humans.
(C) The Mbuti have no words in their language to express the distinction between work activities and leisure activities.
(D) The workday of a European peasant in medieval times averaged between eleven and fifteen hours.
(E) The members of the Shaklik tribe in central Asia have an average workday of ten to twelve hours.
Show more


Pick B.

The argument is strengthened if we can show that the life-style of the Mbuti is similar to that of prehistoric humans. This would mean that people who think that prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival are wrong and would assert the statement 'a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion.'
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 17 Jul 2010, 06:47
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Premises -
P1 Old theory - prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival
P2 New theory - Mbuti did not labored hard. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies.

Conclusion - conclusion is drawn from studying Mbuti - workdays are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

A The stimulus talks about workdays being the product of industralization. How the economy of Mbuti is affected by encroachment of modern civilization has no bearing !
B To draw any conclusion from studying Mbuti about the prehistoric human we must assume that their lifestyles must be similar. Answer
C The distinction b/n work activities and leisure activities has no bearing.
D workday of a European peasant. No bearing
E workday of Shaklik tribe in central Asia. No bearing
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 17 Jul 2010, 15:35
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I agree with B.

To strenghten the given argument, we must establish a connection between prehistoric humans' behavior and Mbuti's behavior.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 18 Jul 2010, 05:42
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A, B, C are compleatly OOS
D and E are close but not sure about the right option.
strange question :evil: :roll: :?:
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 18 Jul 2010, 12:57
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I have just checked the link that BB posted with another thread for this question and people agree that B is correct because it establishes a connection between prehistoric humans and Mbuti.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 04 Nov 2013, 02:56
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Bumping for review and further discussion*.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 16 May 2016, 02:15
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nusmavrik
Premises -
P1 Old theory - prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival
P2 New theory - Mbuti did not labored hard. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies.

Conclusion - conclusion is drawn from studying Mbuti - workdays are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

A The stimulus talks about workdays being the product of industralization. How the economy of Mbuti is affected by encroachment of modern civilization has no bearing !
B To draw any conclusion from studying Mbuti about the prehistoric human we must assume that their lifestyles must be similar. Answer
C The distinction b/n work activities and leisure activities has no bearing.
D workday of a European peasant. No bearing
E workday of Shaklik tribe in central Asia. No bearing
Show more

The old theory says that prehitoric humans laboured hard while new theory says Mbuti did not labour hard.
Then how can the lifestyle of Mbuti and prehistoric human be same?
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 04 Oct 2018, 05:30
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nusmavrik
Premises -
P1 Old theory - prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival
P2 New theory - Mbuti did not labored hard. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies.

Conclusion - conclusion is drawn from studying Mbuti - workdays are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

A The stimulus talks about workdays being the product of industralization. How the economy of Mbuti is affected by encroachment of modern civilization has no bearing !
B To draw any conclusion from studying Mbuti about the prehistoric human we must assume that their lifestyles must be similar. Answer
C The distinction b/n work activities and leisure activities has no bearing.
D workday of a European peasant. No bearing
E workday of Shaklik tribe in central Asia. No bearing

The old theory says that prehitoric humans laboured hard while new theory says Mbuti did not labour hard.
Then how can the lifestyle of Mbuti and prehistoric human be same?
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Using same logic, I have eliminated B.
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akshaykotha
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nusmavrik
Premises -
P1 Old theory - prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival
P2 New theory - Mbuti did not labored hard. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies.

Conclusion - conclusion is drawn from studying Mbuti - workdays are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

A The stimulus talks about workdays being the product of industralization. How the economy of Mbuti is affected by encroachment of modern civilization has no bearing !
B To draw any conclusion from studying Mbuti about the prehistoric human we must assume that their lifestyles must be similar. Answer
C The distinction b/n work activities and leisure activities has no bearing.
D workday of a European peasant. No bearing
E workday of Shaklik tribe in central Asia. No bearing

The old theory says that prehitoric humans laboured hard while new theory says Mbuti did not labour hard.
Then how can the lifestyle of Mbuti and prehistoric human be same?


Using same logic, I have eliminated B.
Show more

My 2 cents,

In the argument it's stated that based on the shortening of average work hours from 12 to below 8 many people assume that this has been the trend throughout history. The argument then goes on to refute this assumption by using counter premise indicator - "However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose."

If we can link these primitive Mbuti people with prehistoric people about whom many people assume that because of the above mentioned trend their working hours would have been incessant, then we will be able to refute the assumption made by many people. Please keep in mind that this is not the argument's assumption and argument is in fact refuting this assumption.

Point 'B' makes this link.

Point 'D' says medieval times, different from pre historic times plus there's no mention of European peasants in the argument.

Point 'E' similarly says something about Shalik tribe, again no mention of it in the original argument and in what time it's being referred to.

Hope this helped !

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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 18 Dec 2018, 22:37
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a. Option ‘a’ has nothing to do with the argument made in the passage as it talks about the effects of modern civilization and not about the pre historic period.
b. The author in the passage has mentioned the study of primitive people. If we consider the life-style of Mbuti similar to that of pre historic people, we can have a study of primitive people.
c. This weakens the argument as the author is making conclusions based in the study of Mbuti.
d. The author wants to compare today’s work hours with pre historic period and not with medieval period.
e. Opens up a different case study.
Hence, b is the answer.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 20 Dec 2019, 04:47
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az780
In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shortening of the average workday from twelve hours or longer to less than eight hours. Mindful of this enormous increase in leisure time over the past century, many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history, and that, therefore, prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.

We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.

Which of the following, if true, would most greatly strengthen the argument made in the passage above?


(A) In recent decades, the economy of the Mbuti has been markedly affected by the encroachment of modern civilization.

(B) The life-style of the Mbuti is similar to that of prehistoric humans.

(C) The Mbuti have no words in their language to express the distinction between work activities and leisure activities.

(D) The workday of a European peasant in medieval times averaged between eleven and fifteen hours.

(E) The members of the Shaklik tribe in central Asia have an average workday of ten to twelve hours.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 14 Sep 2020, 09:55
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the conclusion is that the slack working time is not peculiar to industrialized societies and that working extended time and working slack time are both parts of the industrialization process.

=> For this conclusion to work, the argument need to challenge back the hypothesis that the primate prehistoric people work incessantly.

=> For the challenge to happen, the comparison between prehistoric people and the contemporary people in Africa must be done.
=>For the comparison to be done, the people in Africa must be similar to prehistoric primate people => B
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 12 Feb 2024, 11:23
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the question stem clearly states "The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies". And to strengthen it, B seems the perfect choice as it states that "Mbuti's lifestyle is similar to prehistoric people".

if Mbutis have a lifestyle of prehistoric people (hunting gathering) then short workdays are not exclusive to industrialized societies.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 13 Jul 2024, 05:53
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but why is option D wrong since it's adding to the fact that pre-historic people used to have extended workday?

Also, option C is talking about lifestyle which is no-where mentioned in the argument so it should be OOS.
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In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shorte 19 Aug 2025, 17:47
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