Premise or Conclusion?

Question

In Power Score CR Bible pg 22, I have a doubt between these two questions. It is on identifying Premise & Conclusion.

1. Television has an harmful effect on society.THis can be seen from.....and the fact that.....

In this line, This can be seen from .... and from the fact that ... is a Premise and "Television has an harmful effect is the " Conclusion"
 
2. The rapid diminishment of the ecosystem of the Amazon threthens the entire planet. Consequently..... For the simple reason that ......We must take immediate steps.......

In this line, the line following Consequently, is identified as Conclusion and line following "for the simple reason that, has been Identified as Premise. We must take Immediate steps .... is identified as Conclusion. THe first line, The rapid.... planet has been stated as " Premise"

My question is, If we analyse these 2 sentences, In the first sentence The television has a harmful effect is identified as Conclusion & 1st line of the verse .. "The rapid diminishment.... is identifed as Premise. How can the The rapid diminishment .... be identified as Premise? Shouldnt it be conclusion. As the line states similar points like that of the 1st Television example. Can anyone explain this?

pqhai · Answer

Hi daisyhill1. I understand your inquiries.

First of all, determining correct conclusion is always difficult in GMAT because :
 (1)  there are  many pieces  of information in one argument. You may be distracted by irrelevant information.
 (2)  It's possible that there are  more than one conclusion  in an argument, one is intermediate conclusion, and other is main conclusion.
So, determine correct conclusion is  KEY  in critical reasoning (excepts questions without conclusions, and asks you to find the conclusions).

Back to your question.
Because you're studying Power Score CR - Bible (the best book of CR), so you should follow its instruction.  NEVER assume the first or last sentence are conclusions.

The first example:  
Even though there is not conclusion indicator (thus, therefore, so, conclude that....), you can see the first sentence is the main conclusion. Because:
(1)  Other information just supports the main point  "TV has a harmful effect on society".
(2) You can  use famous technique presented in the book - "Conclusion Identification Method".  Just plug in "because" and "therefore" to the argument, if they make sense, you determine the conclusion correctly. 
  Let try:    Because  of poor school performance of children who watch ......,  therefore  TV has a harmful effect on society. 
Do they make sense, yes they do!. So the conclusion is determined correctly.

The second example:  
(1) You can see the conclusion indicator - Consequently, it is a strong indicator that tells you "This is a conclusion". 
(2) If you still have a doubt, use "Conclusion identification Method". Plug in "because" and therefore" to the argument.
  Let try:    Because  the rapid diminishment of the ecosystem of the Amazon threatens the entire planet,  therefore , we must take immediate steps to convince .......
Yeah! The logic is correct, So the sentence after "consequently" is exactly the main conclusion.

TAKEAWAY:  
(1) Use conclusion indicators such as: therefore, so, thus, consequently, can conclude that,.....
(2) Use "Conclusion Identification Method" - Plug in "because" and "therefore"
(3) NEVER assume the first or last sentence are conclusions.

Hope that helps.

docdrizzeally · Answer

Conclusion may ideally come first in non technicalsubjects only (In general the wordier "important stuff" is introduced gently. In the second case the Amazon data is merely being used for the agenda introduced in the conclusion of the argument which has to be the conclusion. It needs practice and knowing the structure 2+1 make three..there is only on conclusion and it will never be in the middle

ofcourse that is just inferring from the usage but it should be right 24 times out of 25

BeckyRobinsonTPR · Answer

The relationship between conclusion and premise is a complex one and not one that can be defined by the order of the statements. Instead it is best to ask how the statements relate to eachother. One way to do this is the "Why test" if the author states a conclusion on the GMAT then he must also state a reason for coming to that conclusion (although it doesn't always have to make sense to the reader). Thus is is a good rule when you identify what you believe to be the conclusion that you then ask "why does the author believe that" The answer will be available in the text of the argument, even if it is not directly connected.

Therefore in your first example if you ask why is television harmful - you can answer with the information that comes after the "this can be seen by"

In your second example if you ask why the amazon is diminishing you are only left with we must take action, which is clearly not a reason why the amazon is diminishing. However if you ask why must we take action you can answer "because the amazon is diminishing" and that then is a proper connection.

relying on order in the sentence, or even relying on looking for things that look like opinions can often be decieving, instead focusing on the why test can help you to be more successful.

GMATPill · Answer

If you're having a hard time deciphering "premise" and "conclusion" concepts -- I would recommend reading up on a visual approach instead.
The idea of a "premise" may be difficult to capture through text, try reading this article on critical reasoning strategy:

introduction-to-strengthens-cr-questions-154940.html

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Premise or Conclusion?

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