Bunuel wrote:
Dr. Godfrey: Now that high school students are allowed to work more than 15 hours per week at part-time jobs, those who actually do so show less interest in school and get lower grades than those who do not work as many hours at part-time jobs. Obviously, working long hours at part-time jobs during the school year contributes to the academic problems that many of our high school students experience.
Dr. Nash: That’s not so. Many of our high school students set out to earn as much money as they can simply to compensate for their lack of academic success.
Dr. Nash responds to Dr. Godfrey’s argument by doing which one of the following?
This question is very good.
The difference between the correct answer and the other answers looks subtle but is not.
The question asks, "Dr. Nash responds to Dr. Godfrey’s argument by doing which one of the following?"
What did Dr. Nash actually say? Parse her statement.Dr. Nash:
That [your conclusion, Dr. Godfrey,] is not so. Dr. Godfrey's conclusion:
Obviously, working long hours at part-time jobs during the school year contributes to the academic problems that many of our high school students experience.Nash retorts:
No, students who work long hours do so because they already have academic problems for which they are trying to compensate.[Presumably academic failure threatens their chances to go to college or get a good job, for example.]
Dr. Nash responds to Dr. Godfrey’s argument by doing which one of the following• THE OPTIONSQuote:
(A) attempting to downplay the seriousness of the problems facing academically troubled high school students
No. Nash does not downplay the seriousness of the problem.
Nash does
not say: Working students do not have poor academic records.
Nash does not say: Poor academic records are not a problem.
She disputes Godfrey's causal logic.
-- Godfrey says that working long hours causes academic failure.
-- Nash says academic failure causes students to work long hours.
Possibly a trap answer.
Unless you see words that actually downplay the seriousness of the problem, move on.
Eliminate A
Quote:
(B) offering an alternative interpretation of the evidence cited by Dr. Godfrey
This option sounds correct.
Nash took Godfrey's evidence and stood it on it head.
Godfrey: working = academic problems.
Nash: No. Academic problems = workings.
KEEP
Quote:
(C) questioning the accuracy of the evidence on which Dr. Godfrey bases his conclusion
Nash does not question the accuracy of the evidence.
In fact, she
relies on that accuracy herself in order to retort with
her interpretation of the evidence.
Eliminate C
Quote:
(D) proposing that the schools are not at fault for the academic problems facing many high school students
What? Nonsense.
Nash says
nothing about fault. The students simply are in academic trouble.
Godfrey talks about fault: working too much causes academic problems.
Nash disagrees. Work is not to blame. The student already have poor academic records.
Eliminate D
Quote:
(E) raising the possibility that there is no relationship between academic problems among high school students and part-time employment
The opposite answer. Nash says that there IS a direct relationship: when they have academic problems, they work more hours at part-time jobs to try to compensate for those problems.
Eliminate (E)
The answer is B.
close
27 Sep 2019, 04:03
25%
(medium)
23%
(01:54)
wrong 
