PrepTest 128, Section 3, Question 18
Education critics' contention that the use of calculators(48 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(12 more words not shown)
- Apresents only evidence(13 more words not shown)
- Bdraws a conclusion(7 more words not shown)
- Ctakes for granted(12 more words not shown)
- Dtakes a condition(17 more words not shown)
- Econcludes that a(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
“Clearly false” seems strong. A calculator could help with complicated work, but if a student uses it instead of learning why basic arithmetic procedures work, I can see why a teacher might worry. The author needs to give us a reason to dismiss that worry.
Instead, we learn that similar complaints have accompanied other technologies. Greek philosophers worried that writing would weaken memory and the ability to speak without preparation.
Were they wrong? The passage doesn't say. Someone who writes everything down might rely less on memory. I'm not claiming that this proves the philosophers right; I'm asking why their having made the accusation establishes that it was false.
And even if an earlier warning was mistaken, the calculator warning could be correct. Think of someone who has cried wolf before: the next warning could still concern a real wolf. We also need a reason to treat written language's effect on memory as a useful guide to calculators' effect on mathematical understanding.
What we’re looking for
For the flaw question, I'd describe this as relying on a historical comparison without establishing how it answers the critics' actual concern. The answer may describe that problem more generally than my prediction.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The historical accusations are related to the general subject of technology, but their relevance to deciding whether this particular warning is false hasn't been established. We aren't told whether the earlier accusations were true, or why those cases settle what calculators do to mathematical understanding.
The wording needn't mean that written language has nothing whatsoever in common with calculators. It means the author hasn't established why the evidence offered bears on the disputed conclusion in the needed way. That captures the missing connection in the comparison.
- B
The argument doesn't rely on switching between different meanings of knowledge. Its problem remains even if everyone agrees exactly what knowledge of mathematical procedures means: the earlier complaints still don't establish what calculators will do to that knowledge.
- C
Whether a disadvantage exists is different from whether the advantages outweigh it. Calculators might enable valuable scientific work and still weaken some students' understanding of arithmetic. The argument denies the particular harm; it doesn't weigh every technology's benefits against its costs. C also adds an unsupported claim about what always happens.
- D
The author doesn't identify something required for a result and confuse it with something that guarantees that result. The reasoning relies on earlier accusations about technology. D describes a different kind of mistake.
- E
We aren't told about other beliefs held by these education critics, much less a conflict among their beliefs. Earlier Greek philosophers' claims aren't contradictory beliefs attributed to the present critics.
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