One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea

Question

One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea of “privatization”—is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage. Professional opinions of whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question.

The method described above for determining how quickly a new idea is taking hold relies on which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used. 
(B) Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage. 
(C) For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries. 
(d) As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process. 
(E) Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood.

sidd13 · Accepted Answer

The answer is D

This is a Necessary Assumption question. So, we're looking for an answer that is required to be true, in order for the conclusion to have a chance of being true.

The conclusion of the argument is that one can tell how quickly a new idea is taking hold by by monitoring how how fast the word is passing into common usage. The problem with this is that the idea may no longer be represented in the word by the time it becomes common. The meaning of the word could have shifted and so the idea is not taking hold in society, even though the word is. This is best expressed in answer choice (D). Negating answer choice (D) would say, "As the word passes into common usage, it's meaning does undergo severe distortions in the process." The meaning of the word would no longer be the same, so tracking the word, would not be tracking the idea.

(A) is not necessary. They could be interested in words that are rarely used, but that doesn't mean that the editors would in their professional opinions claim that the words had passed into common usage.
(B) is not necessary. How the editors determine whether the word has passed into common usage is not important.
(C) is backwards. it's not that the editors must include the word in their dictionaries for the word to take hold, but that once it takes hold, it gets included in the dictionary.
(D) is necessary to for using the common usage of a word to determine whether a new idea is taking hold in society.
(E) would tend to weaken the argument, so is not necessary to it. If the words are being used before the meaning is understood, then tracking the word tells us nothing of whether the idea is taking hold. People would be using the word without an understanding of its meaning.

Squib17 · Answer

Messed up while solving this one and got it wrong! :'(

One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea of “privatization”—is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words  expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage . Professional opinions of whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question.

The mistake that I made was that I focused on "how fast the words get into common usage" and I thought "exact numerical data" is needed for professional opinions from the dictionary editors!.

(A) Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used. 
 Out of Scope - we are interested in common usage words ]

(B) Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage. 
 Marked this one as the answer - Now I faltered because I thought an exact numerical criteria is needed to give professional opinions, which was nowhere mentioned in the question stem and even negation does not hamper the argument. Hence this should be discarded. ]

(C) For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries. 
 Out of Scope - what they have to include and discard is none of our concern. ]

(d) As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process. 
 This is the CORRECT answer. And this is an important assumption. If the word goes through severe distortions then the idea that the original word needed to convey will no longer be possible and that would shatter the argument.(See highlighted portion in question stem) ]

(E) Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood.
 Out of Scope :We are not concerned if the words are used before or after being understood. Hence this can be discarded. ]

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(A) No. This would weaken the argument. To determine how quickly words enter into common use, dictionary editors should have a professional interest and awareness of words that have not yet reached popular usage.

(B) No. The passage refers to “professional opinions,” not to any exact criteria.

(C) No. The passage is arguing that dictionaries are a means of measuring how quickly a new idea is accepted, not the arbiters of whether a new idea will be accepted.

(D) Yes.  If the meaning of a word has changed to the point that it no longer stands for the concept it originally stood for, then the fact that it is in common use does not mean that the original concept is in common use. For example, the word “bad” when used as slang can mean “good.”

(E) No. This would weaken the argument. If a word denoting a new idea is commonly used but typically not understood, then the word’s popularity will falsely indicate how quickly the idea it denotes is taking hold.

gmatexam439 · Answer

One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea of “privatization”—is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage. Professional opinions of whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question.

The method described above for determining how quickly a new idea is taking hold relies on which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used. -- What editors are interested in is out of scope 
(B) Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage. -- Even if they don't have exact criteria they can still tell when a word has gone into common usage. 
(C) For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries. -- Even if they don't include words in dictionary, editors can tell whether a word is being used commonly 
(d) As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process. -- Correct 
(E) Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood. -- This weakens the argument

sarthakk07 · Answer

Hi Can anyone help me in first understanding the argument, i am getting confused in the second part (profession........) and how does it link to the argument.

TheGraceful · Answer

This really is a difficult question and I got it correct ( I took 4 minutes, though).
I will explain my way.
Let's break the argument into pieces and understand structure.

Premise: One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage.
Premise: Example of this is the idea of “privatization”
Premise/Intermediate statement: whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage.
Conclusion:Professional opinions of are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question.

Premise(s) + Assumption = Conclusion
we have premises and conclusion. Now, we need to fill the gap by finding correct information that helps us to derive the conclusion stated.

(A) Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used.<== Keep this as it talks about things in conclusion - Dictionary editors, their professional interests and usage of words.

(B) Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage. <== Numerical data...?Really..? clearly out of scope. Eliminate

(C) For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries. <== Its reversing the phenomenon by saying first editors include relevant word or words and then idea is passed. Then this means its true for all the words that exist and it becomes extreme. Eliminate

(D) As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process. <== I found this difficult to comprehend and hence NOT sure if this can be eliminated. This has something related to premise; words, their common usages, changes to meaning (implying dictionary editors need to be pulled in). Keep it.

(E) Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood.<== really...? People start using words without understanding meaning implies idea is NOT taking hold despite words going in common usage. This is not stated in premise(s) Eliminate

Okay, Now with process of elimination we have narrowed down the answer choices to 'A' and 'D'. Now, Let's Check/Analyze further.

(A) Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used.
<== Although, it talks about things in conclusion - Dictionary editors, their professional interests and usage of words.Premise talks about (can be inferred that) 'Dictionary editors are professionally interested in words that go into common usages'.
That is answer choice is saying something - which may be true, may NOT true - that Premise doesn't talk anything about.
Its like premise says, IF 'X', THEN 'Y'. However, this answer choice says, If NOT X, THEN NOT 'Y'. Eliminate... Eliminate.. .[/color]

Now, we are left with one option - option 'D'. And that's our final answer.

(D) As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process.
No matter how awkward/weird it looks to you, no matter how much you comprehend the remaining answer choice, that's going to be answer choice. (I took 2 minutes reading this option D again and again and click on 'D', which was waste of time

)

VerbalBot · Answer

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One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea

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