PrepTest 117, Section 3, Question 25
Native speakers perceive sentences of their own language(38 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AIt is impossible(12 more words not shown)
- BThose who do(14 more words not shown)
- CPeople pay less(19 more words not shown)
- DAccomplished non-native speakers(11 more words not shown)
- ENative speakers' perceptions(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Not hearing the words doesn't mean the words aren't there.
When I hear a language I don't know, I may not be able to pick out where one word ends and the next begins. But perhaps a native speaker can hear those divisions because they know what to listen for. My lack of understanding wouldn't establish that their perception is an illusion.
The author takes the outsider's uninterrupted stream of sound as evidence against the native speaker's separate words. Why give the outsider's perception that authority? We have two different perceptions, and the argument needs a reason to use one to discredit the other.
What we’re looking for
For the required assumption, I'd look for a link that lets the unfamiliar listener's experience count against the native speaker's. Keep our objection in mind: what if knowing the language makes the native speaker's perception more accurate? Then the outsider's difficulty would be a poor reason to dismiss it.
Working the answers
- A
This makes a claim about whether an uninterrupted stream of sound can be understood. The argument instead concerns whether the native speaker's perception of separate words is accurate. It doesn't need to establish that an actual stream of sound would be impossible to understand. Someone might learn to interpret such a stream.
- B
This undermines the very evidence the author uses. If people who don't know the language can't hear how it actually sounds, why trust their experience to show that native speakers are mistaken? The argument needs the outsider's perception to count against the native speaker's; B gives us a reason to doubt that perception instead.
- C
The argument doesn't compare how closely the two groups pay attention. Native speakers might pay more attention, less attention, or the same amount. What matters is whether the difference in what they perceive shows that the native speaker's experience is illusory. Attention alone doesn't establish that.
- D
Accomplished non-native speakers form a third group. The evidence compares native speakers with people who don't know the language. How proficient learners hear it isn't needed for the inference the author makes from that comparison. D could be true without being an assumption this argument requires.
- ECorrect
The argument needs to deny that native speakers have the more accurate perception. If their knowledge lets them hear genuine word divisions that unfamiliar listeners miss, the outsider's uninterrupted sound doesn't show an illusion at all.
Try allowing the opposite of E: native speakers' perceptions are more accurate. Then the evidence no longer favors dismissing their perception; it gives us reason to prefer it. That exposes the assumption. E doesn't by itself prove that the native speaker's perception is an illusion, but without it, the author's reason for declaring one falls apart.
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