While political discourse and the media in the United States have focu

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The author claims that the "decrease in such insourcing will hurt America's competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come." In addition, the author claims that the decline in insourcing will "negatively affect the global outlook and experience of American students" because they will "not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures." We are asked to find a question whose answer would provide information useful to evaluating the claims of the argument.

(A) The focus of the argument is not on the financial costs of insourcing.

(B) The focus of the argument is not on how insourcing can compensate for outsourcing.

(C) The focus of the argument is not on the specific numbers of foreign-born students, but on the decline in their number instead.

(D) CORRECT. The argument assumes that the students will not have contact with foreigners through channels other than school. This choice asks whether the students have such contact elsewhere. If the answer to this question is "yes", the author's claims carry less weight.

(E) A government policy might have an effect on insourcing, but it would not necessarily have an effect on the specific claims of the argument.

D is the winner here.

A simple use of Variance test can ascertain it to be the correct choice:

D) What opportunities do American graduate students have to interact regularly with foreigners who are not students?
Ans 1: American grad students have NO opportunity to interact with non-student foreigners => Strengthen the argument that " American grad students will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures"

Ans 2: (polar opposite of Ans 1) American grad students will have LOT OF opportunity to interact with non-student foreigners => Weaken the argument.

Since the polar opposite answers result in polar opposite results (Strengthen Vs Weaken) the Question is the most relevant one to evaluate the argument.

Crick

Guys I do have a doubt regarding C.
If my answer to C is that there is a decline of 50,000 foreign born graduates in American colleges, then it strengthens the argument but if my answer to the question is just 10, i.e there is a decline of 10 foreign born graduates, then there may not be any effect on American students learning.
Please let me know if I am missing something.

Yes, a portion of question
Question says: " sharp fall of talent “insourcing,” or the drop in enrollment of foreign-born graduate students since 2001, and its dire results."
So there is a sharp fall in number of international students, and this is taken for granted while evaluating answer choices. C doesnt remain a candidate with this.

as shown by others, D it is.

I have some issues with the wording of the question. For example, the question asks: "The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the author’s claim regarding the impact of decreased insourcing in America?" But the author does not make just one claim. The author makes several claims; the author says the decrease will "hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology", that it will have "serious consequences for years to come", and that it will "negatively affect the global outlook and experience of ... American students". So which claim is the question even talking about?

There's a lot of noise in the question, but if you strip away the superfluous language, and focus on the claim about the global outlook of American students, the question tells us:

"The decrease... will ... negatively affect the global outlook ... of ... American students; they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures."

But it's possible that American students can learn about other cultures in other ways - perhaps by interacting with non-students who are 'members of other cultures'. If that were true, then the decrease in insourcing may not have quite the impact the author suggests. So D is the answer.

the question asks you for a consideration that will help in evaluating the author's "claim regarding the IMPACT of decreased insourcing". there are 2 such claims:
1: decreased insourcing compromises america's competitiveness in research and technology;
2: decreased insourcing is detrimental to the global outlook of american students because they won't be exposed to foreigners.

choice (e), while relevant to the last sentence of the passage, will do nothing to establish or undermine the integrity of the above 2 claims. choice (d), on the other hand, has a direct bearing on the integrity of claim number 2.

you must read the question very, very, very carefully!

- Ron Purewal (MGMAT)

From the answers available, choice D is correct because it is the only one that directly affects the impact of insourcing. However, I think the question isn't that great because the main impact of insourcing that the author mentions is to 'America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come'. The part of learning from different cultures is a secondary impact, and I thought the main impact should be what needs to be evaluated.

Premise: Decrease in insourcing of foreign students
Conclusion: American students will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of foreign cultures

To evaluate this conclusion, we need to find the statement that directly affects it.
Only option D talks about it.

If there are other opportunities for interacting with foreigners, then the american students should not worry much about the learning of cultures from the students.
If there are not much opportunities, then the american students should worry about it.

What confused me is that the question has to do with the impact of the premise on an intermediate conclusion, not the main conclusion.

As I see it, the intermediate conclusion contained two points:
The de-internationalization of graduate programs across the country:
(1) will also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American students remaining in those programs;
(2) they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures.

Now looking at the answers:

A. What is the cost to reverse the trend of insourcing in America?
B. How does insourcing replace domestic jobs lost from outsourcing?
--> Both are off-topic.

C. Since 2001, what has been the decrease in the number of foreign-born students in America?
E. What effect would a government policy have on the number of foreign graduate students?
--> Both have to do with the number of 'insourcing', not its impact on the intermediate conclusion.

D. What opportunities do American graduate students have to interact regularly with foreigners who are not students?
-> Only D addressed that impact of the premise on the intermediate conclusion. Not only that, this connection is only with the second part of the intermediate conclusion, not the first part.

let us simplify the argument given --

decreased insourcing --> American students will not have opportunity to learn about foreign cultures --> negatively impact their global outlook --> hurt competitiveness in basic research and applied technology.

let us look at the answer options -

Option A - Incorrect.
Does not matter. As we already know that it can be "easily rectified". Moreover, whatever the cost to reverse the trend is has no impact on the argument that decreased insourcing hurts competitiveness in basic research and technology.

Option B - Incorrect.
The argument has nothing to do with "outsourcing" or even replacing jobs lost to outsourcing.

Option C - Incorrect.
Does not matter. As we already know that drop has been "sharp". Knowing absolute quantities does not add anything new.

Option D - Correct.
Let us supply opposite answers.
1. they have great opportunities. This breaks the chain of reasoning in the argument, especially this - decreased insourcing --> American students will not have opportunity to learn about foreign cultures.

Option E - Incorrect.
Not relevant. Look at the argument again. We are specifically concerned with how decreased insourcing hurts competitiveness in basic research and technology.
How government policies impact insourcing is irrelevant.

let us simplify the argument (claim regarding the impact of decreased insourcing in America) --

drop in insourcing --> students will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures --> Negative impact on global outlook and competitiveness of American students

Let us take a look at the answer options --

Option A - Incorrect

Not relevant to the author's claim mentioned above on the impact of the decreased insourcing in America.
Moreover, we already know that such a trend is "easy to rectify" through a policy change -- the actual cost is not relevant.

Option B - Incorrect

The "method" (or HOW) through which insourcing replaces jobs lost to outsourcing is not relevant to the author's claim -- Furthermore, nowhere is it mentioned that insourcing replaces domestic jobs lost to outsourcing.

Option C - Incorrect

The actual number does not add any "new/relevant" information necessary to evaluate the argument mentioned above -- we already know that there has been a "sharp fall in talent insourcing".

Option D - Correct answer

If they have many such opportunities, the claim is weakened. If they have none, the claim is strengthened.

Option E - Incorrect

We already know the answer for this -- "the former [decline in insourcing = drop in enrollment of foreign-born graduate students] can be easily rectified by a policy change of the United States government.
In addition, this is not relevant to evaluating the author's claim on the impact of "decrease in talent insourcing".

While political discourse and the media in the United States have focused on the rise of job outsourcing, few have mentioned the sharp fall of talent “insourcing,” or the drop in enrollment of foreign-born graduate students since 2001, and its dire results. The decrease in such insourcing will hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come. The de-internationalization of graduate programs across the country will also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American students remaining in those programs; they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures. What distinguishes the decline of talent insourcing from the rise of job outsourcing is that the former can be easily rectified by a policy change of the United States government.

Type- Evaluate
Boil it down - The decrease in such insourcing will hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come.

• What is the cost to reverse the trend of insourcing in America? - irrelevant - the actual cost is not a concern
• How does insourcing replace domestic jobs lost from outsourcing? - irrelevant - the argument does not specify this
• Since 2001, what has been the decrease in the number of foreign-born students in America? - irrelevant - the actual number of decrease is irrelevant to the argument
• What opportunities do American graduate students have to interact regularly with foreigners who are not students? - Correct - applying variance test -
If American students regularly interact with foreigners who are not students, then the argument is weakened, else it is strengthened
• What effect would a government policy have on the number of foreign graduate students?- irrelevant

Answer D

Hi nightblade354,

Could you please help me out with this question. I think since I am a non-native speaker, sometimes I get stuck in understanding the information provided in the passage and this is one such case.

What I understood from the passage is mentioned below:

Media focuses on outsourcing, very few focus on the following two things:

1. Sharp fall in talent insourcing
2. Drop in enrollment of foreign-born graduate students.

Then the author presents the impact of each of the case and then the question stem asks about evaluating the author's claim for first case. I am curious as option choice which is correct is talking about the second case.

I might be mistaken while reading, but could you please help me out.

Wonderwoman31,

This is what the question wants you to evaluate, as these are the effects: "The decrease in such insourcing will hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come. The de-internationalization of graduate programs across the country will also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American students remaining in those programs; they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures."

And option (D) does just that. It counters the author's claim, thus weakening it. And this helps us evaluate the argument.

Does this help?

The question asks to evaluate the claim regarding the impact of decreased insourcing in America i.e. decrease in number of foreign students will lead to further decrease in America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology and also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American students remaining in those programs as they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures

Option D vs E
If D is answered yes then if there are opportunities other than school interaction then it dosen't matter whether you increaes or decrease the number of foreign opportunities because they still have the chance with the current scenario.

it's like you are running a plant, but a further investment for increasing the capacity is of no use unless you can fully realize the potential of the existing capacity or expored other opportunities

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