Quote:
2,500 individuals of voting age were polled and asked where they stood on the political spectrum. 78% of these individuals described themselves as "moderate" in their political views; however, in the national elections that most closely preceded and followed the poll, over half of the individuals polled voted for candidates far to one end of the political spectrum. It follows that these individuals did not accurately describe their political views.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the above argument relies?
A. Individuals always characterize themselves in keeping with their actual political views.
B. There were no moderate candidates in the national elections preceding and following the poll.
C. Voters with moderate political views will not vote for candidates who do not express moderate political views.
D. Voters can be highly fickle, changing their political views in a relatively short period of time.
E. Many of the polled individuals did not understand what a moderate political view is, and so misdescribed themselves.
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONIdentify the Question Type:
The words, "Which of the following is an assumption…?" indicate that this is an Assumption question. Plan on untangling the stimulus by identifying the conclusion and evidence of the argument, and then determining the key assumption that ties them together.
Untangle the Stimulus:
The conclusion is found in the last sentence, cued by the keywords "It follows that": These individuals must have misrepresented their political views. The author's evidence is that these people said that they are "moderate," but then voted for an extreme (non-moderate) candidate.
Predict the Answer:
The assumption connects the evidence and conclusion. It is something that the author left out but must believe to be true, for the conclusion to follow from the evidence. Here, the evidence is that people said they were moderate, but voted for a non-moderate candidate. In order to conclude that voters misrepresented their political views, the author must assume that a moderate voter would only vote for a moderate candidate.
Evaluate the Choices:
(C) is a close match for the prediction arrived at in Step 3. (C) is the answer.
(A) deals only with whether people's views are what they say they are. But the author doesn't have to assume that people always characterize themselves correctly. Even if they sometimes don't, the question is whether their voting choice can determine whether they characterized themselves accurately. (A) doesn’t address this and must be eliminated.
(B) is contradicted by the stimulus, which says half of the individuals voted for candidates far to one end of the spectrum. That means the other half voted for candidates in the middle. Eliminate (B).
(D) is not something the author must assume. The author is arguing that people misrepresented their views, as evidenced by the fact that they voted for candidates with views other than their own. The author is not assuming these voters changed their views at all. Eliminate (D).
(E) is not something the author must assume. The author simply argues that the people polled “did not accurately describe their political views.” He doesn't have to assume that this is because they didn’t understand the question in the poll. The author could be open to other reasons why they were inaccurate in describing their views. The question is, does the fact that they voted for candidates with different views prove that they described themselves inaccurately? (E) doesn't address this and must be eliminated.
TAKEAWAY: Be very clear on the evidence and conclusion of the argument, and stick to the connection between them. Choices that are incorrect because they are irrelevant to the argument are quite common and can be easily spotted by having a good paraphrase of the argument.