Tallulah: The columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels

Question

Tallulah: The columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels to consumerism, technology, and the laziness of people who prefer watching television to reading a novel. However, in reaching this conclusion, the columnist has overlooked important evidence. It is surely relevant that contemporary fiction is frequently of poor quality—indeed, much of it is meaningless and depressing—whereas many good newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and books of other types are currently available.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of Tallulah’s argument?

(A) Contemporary fiction is unpopular because it is meaningless, depressing, and of poor overall quality.

(B) The columnist’s claim that novels are being displaced by consumerism, technology, and television is false.

(C) The view expressed by the columnist was formed without considering all of the pertinent evidence.

(D) People read as much as they used to, but most of the works they now read are not novels.

(E) A large number of high-quality newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and nonfiction books are currently published.

peanuts · Answer

Tallulah: The columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels to consumerism, technology, and the laziness of people who prefer watching television to reading a novel. However, in reaching this conclusion, the columnist has overlooked important evidence. It is surely relevant that contemporary fiction is frequently of poor quality—indeed, much of it is meaningless and depressing—whereas many good newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and books of other types are currently available.
 
Conclusion: columnist overlooked important evidence

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of Tallulah’s argument?

(A) Contemporary fiction is unpopular because it is meaningless, depressing, and of poor overall quality.  it is only frequently, not always of poor quality

(B) The columnist’s claim that novels are being displaced by consumerism, technology, and television is false.  no, not related to conclusion

(C) The view expressed by the columnist was formed without considering all of the pertinent evidence.  yes, Tallulah concluded that columnists did not consider all evidences, which means "overlook"

(D) People read as much as they used to, but most of the works they now read are not novels.  no information about this

(E) A large number of high-quality newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and nonfiction books are currently published.  no information about this. Only statement that newspaper, magazines... are available

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The question requires us to identify a conclusion from the given premises.

Tallulah states that the columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels to consumerism, technology, and the laziness of people who prefer watching television to reading a novel but that the columnist has overlooked evidence. She provides information that she feels the columnist has overlooked.

Option A is the information that Tallulah provides to support her conclusion that the columnist has overlooked evidence. So,  Option A  can be eliminated.

Tallulah doesn’t contradict the columnist’s statement or declare it false. She states that the columnist has overlooked evidence and provides information that she feels should also have been taken into consideration. So,  Option B  can also be eliminated.

Option D is out of scope. Tallulah states that contemporary fiction is meaningless and depressing. She also states that many good newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and books of other types are currently available. She agrees with the columnist that people read lesser than they used to but she attributes this fact to another reason. So,  Option D  is irrelevant.

Option E contains information that Tallulah uses to support her conclusion, so  Option E  can also be eliminated.

Option C sums up Tallulah’s conclusion. She agrees that people read novels lesser than they used to but she feels that the columnist has overlooked one reason for this situation.

Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

warriortx · Answer

Tallulah: The columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels to consumerism, technology, and the laziness of people who prefer watching television to reading a novel. However, in reaching this conclusion, the columnist has overlooked important evidence. It is surely relevant that contemporary fiction is frequently of poor quality—indeed, much of it is meaningless and depressing—whereas many good newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and books of other types are currently available.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of Tallulah’s argument?

(A) Contemporary fiction is unpopular because it is meaningless, depressing, and of poor overall quality.
FALSE. This statement represents a premise on which the argument depends. The argument concludes that evidence has been overlooked. Such conclusion is supported by the evidence itself: that fiction is of poor quality.

(B) The columnist’s claim that novels are being displaced by consumerism, technology, and television is false.
FALSE. Such claim need not be necessarily false. False is a strong word. It may be true that novels are being (partially) misplaced by consumerism. The point of the argument is not that such claim is false, but that such claim is incomplete: there are other factors in play. For example, other written media are replacing novels because the former are of better quality than the latter.

(C) The view expressed by the columnist was formed without considering all of the pertinent evidence.
CORRECT. This is the main point of the argument. I will restate it, in case there are doubts:
1. Columnist says novels have been replaced by X, Y and Z.
2. Columnist did not consider factor M.
3. Factor M implies that novels have also been replaced by N.
4. Thus, (1) is insufficient.

(D) People read as much as they used to, but most of the works they now read are not novels.
FALSE. There is an easy way to spot this question as false: we just do not know whether people read as much as they used to. Such information has not been provided by the argument. Hence, this question has to be false.

(E) A large number of high-quality newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and nonfiction books are currently published.
FALSE. This option is false for the same reason as (D): we do not know what number of newspapers have been published! Nowhere in the argumentation has this fact been mentioned.

Answer: C.

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Tallulah: The columnist attributes the decline of interest in novels

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