Historian: A democracys citizens must know some history if the democr

Question

Historian: A democracy’s citizens must know some history if the democracy is to meet its challenges. However, popular historical awareness is inevitably distorted, for most people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history.

The historian’s argument depends on assuming which one of the following?

(A) Historical awareness is distorted by the view that there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains.
(B) History cast in the narrative format inevitably distorts historical reality.
(C) Most historical narratives sustain interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history.
(D) Only narratives written for a purpose other than sustaining readers’ interest can convey an undistorted awareness of history.
(E) The implication that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history distorts history.

vv65 · Accepted Answer

PREMISE 
most people learn history through popular narratives that ... imply that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history

CONCLUSION 
popular historical awareness is inevitably distorted

How does this premise lead to this conclusion? 
The author believes that the premise leads to the conclusion. He believes that learning history through such narratives leads to a distorted awareness of history. 
"Such narratives" = narratives implying that "a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history".

That is exactly what answer choice (E) says:
 E. The implication that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history distorts history

Hope this helps

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Rickooreo · Answer

Can you please share official answer / analysis of this question

Rickooreo · Answer

vv65

Thanks for revert, one follow up question

Conclusion:- historical awareness is inevitably distorted. 
Premise is most people learn history from narratives

We need to link : History narratives with historical AWARENESS

E doesn't talk about awareness at all

A talks both about historical narratives and awareness + negate A
Historical awareness is NOT distorted by the view that there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains.
Conclusion weakens

Can you please help me know where I went wrong

vv65 · Answer

One, your premise is incomplete. 
In CR, every word can matter! The part of the premise you omitted is important:  "by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history" .

Two, read exactly what (A) says:
 Historical awareness is distorted by the view that there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains.

The premise isn't "there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains". So the problem with (A) is that it does not link to the premise at all.

Note: 
I omitted a part of the premise too ("that sustain popular interest by..."). This part is not important and not relevant in finding the assumption. I omitted to make the premise shorter and clearer.

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thakurarun85 · Answer

E is already there in argument "implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history".

E can't be an assumption.

vv65 · Answer

Firstly, (E) is not already stated in the argument. (E) is implied/assumed in the argument, but not stated. That's exactly what an assumption is: something implied but not stated.

Secondly, (E) does not state that  "a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history" .

Read what exactly (E) says. Check whether (E) is stated anywhere in the argument.

Posted from my mobile device

aj1410 · Answer

Can somebody please explain, why option A is wrong? Thanks

einstein801 · Answer

My interpretation of A not being right is because it is a restatement (somewhat) of the premise and not a NEEDED assumption.

Negation: "...NOT only..."

dey_sunny77 · Answer

How to get actual explanation for this question? do I have to subscribe at gmat club?

tommychudw · Answer

Can I get more clarity as to how one should go about differentiating between A and E? They both sound like logical assumptions for the historian's argument to hold..

MartyMurray · Answer

Historian: A democracy’s citizens must know some history if the democracy is to meet its challenges. However, popular historical awareness is inevitably distorted, for most people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history.

The historian concludes the following:

popular historical awareness is inevitably distorted

The support for the conclusion is the following:

most people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history

So, basically, the historian has reasoned that, simply because people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history, their awareness of history is distorted.

The historian’s argument depends on assuming which one of the following?

This is an Assumption question, and the correct answer will state something that must be true for the premise to effectively support the conclusion.

(A) Historical awareness is distorted by the view that there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains.

This choice is tricky to eliminate because it seems to perfectly connect the premise to the conclusion.

However, there's a key issue with this choice, a very picky issue such as we much expect to see in an LSAT question.

The premise of the argument is that most people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that  a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history .

This choice states that historical awareness is distorted by the view that  there have been only a few famous heroes or notorious villains .

Let's compare the view mentioned in the passage and the view mentioned in this choice:

Passage:  a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history

This choice:  there have been only a few famous heroes or villains

We can see that the views are not the same.

If the views were the same, this choice would work. However, since this choice involves a view rather different from the one involved in the premise, this choice cannot state an assumption that connects the premise to the conclusion.

Eliminate.

(B) History cast in the narrative format inevitably distorts historical reality.

The point of the argument is not that historical awareness must be distorted since people learn through history "cast in the narrative format."

The point is that historical awareness must be distorted since people learn about history through through a certain type of popular narratives, ones "that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history."

So, argument does assume that all history cast in the narrative distorts historical reality.

After all, even if some history cast in the narrative format does NOT distort historical reality, if narratives "that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history" distort history, the argument works.

Eliminate.

(C) Most historical narratives sustain interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history.

This is another choice with tricky wording.

In the passage, we see " most people learn history  ...."

In this choice we see " most historical narratives sustain interest  ...."

So, what the passage discusses and what this choice discusses are not the same thing.

Thus, to eliminate this choice, we need to notice that it could be that "most people learn history" through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history," even if this choice is not true.

After all, even if "most historical narratives" do NOT sustain interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history, it still could be the case that "most people" learn from the narratives that do sustain interest in that way.

So, while it may seem that this choice must be true for the premise to be true, it doesn't have to be.

So, the argument works even if this choice is not true.

Eliminate.

(D) Only narratives written for a purpose other than sustaining readers’ interest can convey an undistorted awareness of history.

The point of the argument is not that historical awareness must be distorted since people learn about history through narratives written for the purpose of sustaining readers’ interest.

The point is that historical awareness must be distorted since people learn about history through through narratives "that sustain readers’ interest" in a particular way, which is "by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history."

So, argument does assume that only narratives written for a purpose other than sustaining readers’ interest can convey an undistorted awareness of history.

After all, even if some narratives written FOR THE PURPOSE OF SUSTAINING READERS' INTEREST can convey an undistorted awareness of history, as long as narratives "that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history" distort history, the argument works.

Eliminate.

(E) The implication that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history distorts history.

This choice is interesting.

As we have seen, the reasoning of the argument is basically that, simply because people learn history through popular narratives that sustain readers’ interest by implying that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history, their awareness of history is distorted.

So, the argument jumps from the fact that people learn history through a certain type of popular narratives to the conclusion that their awareness of history is distorted.

Thus, the argument must assume that the implications of those types of narratives distort history. After all, if the implications of those types of narratives do NOT distort history, then there's no reason to believe that, just because people learn through narratives of that type, their awareness of history is distorted.

So, the argument works only if this choice is true. In other words, this choice states an assumption on which the argument depends.

Keep.

Correct answer:   E

GMATNinja · Answer

Choice (A) refers to "the view  that there have been  only a few famous heroes or notorious villains." This view only pertains to the  existence  of a small number of heroes or villains. It doesn't say anything about how that small number of heroes or villains affected (or shaped) history.

According to the passage, the popular narratives imply that a few famous heroes and notorious villains have shaped all of history. Choice (E) provides the missing link between this given fact about popular narratives and the author's conclusion:

Most people learn history through popular narratives.
 
 Popular narratives make a certain implication.
 
 That implication distorts history. (Choice E)
 
 Therefore, popular historical awareness is inevitably distorted

(A) is close, but (E) is the required assumption.

I hope that helps!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Historian: A democracys citizens must know some history if the democr

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Historian: A democracys citizens must know some history if the democr

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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