Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires— the “undead” who

Question

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires— the “undead” who roam at night to suck the blood of living people— as able to turn into bats. As a result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths. However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths existed in Europe long before Stoker's book.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as strictly nocturnal.

(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America, where real vampire bats are found, portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe before the publication of Stoker's Dracula.

(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was familiar with earlier European vampire myths.

samusa · Accepted Answer

I think it is better to negate A in full-
 At least   one  NONE of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book  did not  portray vampires as strictly nocturnal.

Upon complete negation, the negated statement reinforces/strengthens the conclusion and hence can not be an assumption.

I think completely negating option A makes it very clear that A can never stand as an assumption.

shyind · Answer

I will go with D). However, I have other choice A) as its contender.

Can someone explain why A) is incorrect?

dominicraj · Answer

Hi,

I was able to get only D.Here are my 2 cents:

Conculsion: vampire myths existed in Europe long before Stoker's book. The myth per se "the vampires turning into bats"

In A the option talks about "the vampires being nocturnal"..

For assumptions we follow the  negation test :

Negate option A: At least one book.. potrayed vampires as strictly nocturnal.

Now we see that even if we negate option A... the conclusion is still possible...ie. we can have such a book that portrayed vampires as nocturnal while still saying that vampires dint transform into bats.

Negate option D: No book predated Stoker's and said that vampires turn into bats ie. Stroker was the first. This shatters the conclusion.

Hence D is the correct assumption based on which the conclusion is made.

Regards,
Dom.

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires— the “undead” who roam at night to suck the blood of living people— as able to turn into bats. As a result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths. However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths existed in Europe long before Stoker's book.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

The author says Stoker's Dracula is responsible for the misconception that vampires must be able to turn into bats. Stoker's Dracula is contrasted with its predecessors who apparently did not include bats in their myths.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as strictly nocturnal.  The characteristic of being nocturnal is out of scope. 
(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America, where real vampire bats are found, portray vampires as able to turn into bats.  Central and South American myths aren't relevant to this argument. 
(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe before the publication of Stoker's Dracula. Whether or not they existed outside of Europe doesn't affect the argument. 
 (D)  At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as able to turn into bats. The bat concept has been uniquely attributed to Stoker. If it were in many myths before his the argument that he is responsible for it loses validity. 
(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was familiar with earlier European vampire myths. His familiarity with the myths doesn't affect the argument.

abhi2707 · Answer

For both A and D there can be only one negation. We cannot negate twice in an answer choice. This way both A and D will cease to be among probable choices. 
We will be left with only E (as the nearest possible correct choice)

Pl clarify

Doer01 · Answer

Hi,
 Author says it was Stoker's book after which people started assuming that being able to turn into a vampire is an essential "part" of "vampire myths". Author says this assumption is false and vampire myths existed in Europe before Stoker's book.

1. Argument shifted from a myth to all myths that existed before Stoker's book.
2. Negating D to  None  of the European..... did not  portray....bats does falsify author's conclusion.

TBH I am not quite convinced with this question. An expert's view will be appreciated.

KushagraKirtiman · Answer

Negation test is not at all required. option A says about vampires being nocturnal which is not at all mentioned in the passage. While Option D directly attacks the conclusion of the argument that Vampires did not turn into bats according one of the myths predating the novel.

LUBABAYIMER · Answer

I was able to get D. It is the correct answer. At least one of the vampire myths from Europe that existed before Stoker's book did not depict vampires as having the ability to transform into bats. One-of-a-kind credit for the bat idea goes to Stoker. The argument that he is to blame for it loses credibility if it was present in other myths before his.

Azakura16 · Answer

Background: Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula, portrayed vampires as able to turn into bats.
Premise: Due to Dracula’s popularity, many people now assume that being able to turn into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths.
Premise: Vampire myths existed in Europe long before the novel.
Conclusion: These people’s bat-based assumption is false.

A. Irrelevant. This choice brings up another potential inconsistency in vampire lore, but that’s not the one we’re concerned with.
B. Irrelevant. Though the passage is talking about Europe, this choice could seem to weaken the argument. A statement that weakens the argument can never be an assumption upon which the argument relies.
C. This is out of scope. We’re not talking about any myths outside of Europe.
D. This is an assumption the argument relies on. If none of the myths that predated Dracula featured vampires as able to turn into bats, then this part of the myth could be attributed to Stoker, and the conclusion could stand. If even one older myth did feature vampires as bats, then the conclusion that people are wrong and the bat transformation isn’t part of the older vampire myths doesn’t hold. 
E. This is irrelevant. The conclusion doesn’t rest on his familiarity with earlier European vampire myths. 
Best answer is D

MehakKaushal · Answer

Why (D) is Correct (The Negation Test)Let's apply the Negation Test by flipping Option (D) to its exact opposite and seeing if it breaks the argument:Negation of (D): Every single one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book portrayed vampires as able to turn into bats.Impact: If every ancient myth already included the bat-shifting ability, then turning into a bat actually was an essential, foundational part of vampire mythology long before Stoker wrote his book. This completely destroys the author’s conclusion.

guddo · Answer

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires, the “undead” who roam at night to suck the blood of living people, as able to turn into bats. As a result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths. However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths existed in Europe long before Stoker's book. 
 
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

The argument says bat transformation is not essential to vampire myths because vampire myths existed before Dracula.  The missing assumption  is that at least some earlier vampire myths did not include  turning into bats . If all earlier vampire myths also had that feature, then the argument would fail.

(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as strictly nocturnal.

This is not required. The argument is about whether vampires turning into bats is essential, not whether vampires are strictly nocturnal.

(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America, where real vampire bats are found, portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

This is irrelevant. The argument concerns European vampire myths before Dracula.

(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe before the publication of Stoker's Dracula.

This is not required. The argument does not depend on whether vampire myths existed outside Europe.

(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

This is correct. To show that bat transformation is not essential to vampire myths, the argument needs at least one pre-Stoker vampire myth that lacks that feature.

(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was familiar with earlier European vampire myths.

This is not required. The argument is about whether the bat-transformation feature is essential to vampire myths, not about what Stoker personally knew.

Answer: (D)

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires— the “undead” who

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Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires— the “undead” who

Prep Toolkit

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