LR Drill Set 9, Question 8
It is impossible to predict the future of(39 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(23 more words not shown)
- AIt is a(19 more words not shown)
- BIt is offered(19 more words not shown)
- CIt is offered(12 more words not shown)
- DIt is the(8 more words not shown)
- EIt is a(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why would human decisions make the future impossible to predict? Couldn't we predict at least some of those decisions?
The author goes further: if the future could be predicted, nobody could affect it. I'm not convinced.
Predicting what someone will do isn't obviously the same as denying that the person's decision affects what happens. I could predict that a person will choose one route to work while still recognizing that the choice changes where the person travels.
But we don't need to agree with the argument to understand what each sentence is doing. The main point is that predicting humanity's future is impossible. The author supports that point with claims about human choices affecting the future and about prediction supposedly requiring a future no one could affect.
What we’re looking for
The question asks about the claim that every choice affects the future. Ask where it sits in that reasoning: the author uses it as a reason for the conclusion. The passage doesn't then give another reason meant to establish that claim. It's a starting assertion in the argument, even if we would like more support for it.
Working the answers
- A
This has the support running the wrong way. The author doesn't say, 'We can't predict the future, so every choice must affect it.' The claim about choices is used to help explain why prediction is impossible. It supports the main conclusion rather than being a conclusion supported by it.
- BCorrect
The claim about every choice affecting the future supports the main conclusion, and no other statement is offered to prove that claim. Combined with the author's rule that a predictable future could not be affected, it helps lead to the claim that the future cannot be predicted.
Being unsupported within the passage doesn't stop a statement from functioning as a premise. It tells us where the author begins the reasoning, not whether the statement is beyond question.
- C
The statement isn't just background setting the scene. It does argumentative work: if choices affect the future, the author's other claim about prediction is supposed to rule out predicting it. Calling the statement background would miss that connection to the conclusion.
- D
It is a premise, but it is not the only one. The claim that a predictable future could not be affected is another piece of support. That connecting rule matters: the statement about choices doesn't establish unpredictability all by itself.
- E
A concession would grant a point to the other side before continuing the argument. Here the author offers the statement as support for the author's own conclusion. There is no suggestion that it is a point being conceded to people who believe prediction is possible.
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