PrepTest 103, Section 2, Question 7
Speakers of the Caronian language constitute a minority(67 more words not shown)
The argument relies on which(5 more words not shown)
- AA nation once(10 more words not shown)
- BCaronian-speakers tend to(7 more words not shown)
- CThe recommendation would(13 more words not shown)
- DThe new Caronian(12 more words not shown)
- EIn most nations(5 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Could the Caronian speakers move closer together?
That is my first reaction to the claim that their scattered locations make a nation impossible. If people relocated, perhaps the population could fit within a different boundary. Whether they would want to move is another question; we have not been told that they would.
But read the recommendation carefully. It concerns granting independence to the regions where Caronian speakers already live. Moving people somewhere else would not necessarily carry out that particular proposal. So relocation is a possibility I thought of, not a complete answer to the argument as written.
The author says the existing areas cannot be enclosed within one continuous boundary while keeping Caronian speakers in the majority. That establishes a problem with that arrangement. Does it establish that the recommendation cannot be satisfied at all?
What we’re looking for
The question asks for a necessary assumption. My initial thought was a restriction on moving, but we need to check what the recommendation itself requires. Look for an unstated requirement that lets the author rule out satisfying it.
Working the answers
- A
The plan does not require a former Caronian-majority nation. It could concern creating such a nation for the first time. Whether one existed in the past does not establish that the scattered present-day regions cannot satisfy the recommendation.
- B
Speaking the same language does not automatically mean that people see themselves as one community. More importantly, the author's objection concerns the geographical arrangement and the majority population, not the speakers' shared identity. That objection could be made whether they feel united or not.
- CCorrect
Here is another way around the obstacle: the nation could consist of disconnected regions. It could include the separate Caronian-speaking areas without including all the intervening territory that would prevent them from forming a majority.
That differs from my initial relocation idea. The people can remain where they are; the proposed nation's territory need not form one continuous area. If that arrangement satisfied the recommendation, the author's evidence would not establish that the recommendation is impossible.
The argument therefore needs to rule it out. C supplies exactly that assumption: a nation of disconnected regions would not satisfy the recommendation.
- D
A majority does not mean everyone. The recommendation allows Caronian speakers to make up more than half of the new nation's population while other people are included too. It does not require excluding every citizen who speaks a different language.
- E
The number of languages spoken in most nations does not determine whether this particular recommendation can be fulfilled. The argument needs a connection between the scattered regions and the proposed nation's boundaries, not a general statistic about multilingual countries.
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