Critical Reasoning

[dilipgmat]

Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache, which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?

A.The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.

B.Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.

C.Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.

D.To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.

E.The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

The Q is from the MGCAT .

The answer is D .
The inference should be with respect to the Aurthor's concern abt the use of foreign language words that contestants are given.

In that case C should be the answer !!!
Kindly correct me if i am wrong .. Thanks in Advance !!

[dilipgmat]

What i feel is that the main topic of contention and the feel of the arguement is that the contestants are given unusually difficult words from foreign languages .

this is contrary to the explanation given ...

Pls let me know if my line of thinking is apt!!!!

[RonPurewal]

What i feel is that the main topic of contention and the feel of the arguement is that the contestants are given unusually difficult words from foreign languages .

this is contrary to the explanation given ...

Pls let me know if my line of thinking is apt!!!!

this is an inference question. this means that you're looking for a statement that is REQUIRED TO BE TRUE.

choice (d) is the only statement that, according to this passage, MUST be true. note the mention of "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics" in the passage; this implies that correct spelling of foreign (non-english) words requires such knowledge.

choice (c) is not required by the passage; it's nearly impossible for a statement containing "should" to be required. moreover, and far worse, this statement is actually contrary to the spirit of the passage!
the main idea of the passage is that english spelling bees should be, basically, limited to native english words, and that many aspects of language - including the foreign influences on spelling - should be EXCLUDED from spelling contests. this is precisely the opposite of what is posited in choice (c).

hope this helps.

[therick]

As a German native (as an Austrian to be exact) I apparently know less about my language than an 8th grader of Jersey. Yeah, right. Possibly the judges of the belling spee trusted an unreliable source:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ursprache

Most important dictionary in German:
http://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/ursprache

Ursprache means only original language. This GMAT question may distract a German (and an Austrian or Swiss) test taker.

Regards

(Great GMAT CAT Macfriendly Application by the way)

[jnelson0612]

Interesting! :-)

[ajhong]

Hi there,

Wondering why choice B ("Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.") can't be a right answer here?

The columnist states: "Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers?" -- which I thought would infer that foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words to spell since he suggests its used to "challenge our best spellers"?

Can someone please explain why B isn't a good answer?

Thanks in advance!

[tim]

The author of the argument is saying nothing about the difficulty of accomplishing the tasks the spelling bee asks for, but instead claims the spelling bee should be asking for students to complete DIFFERENT tasks (not necessarily EASIER ones). Also note that B makes an unwarranted generalization about ALL contestants..

[suyash.tiwari]

What i feel is that the main topic of contention and the feel of the arguement is that the contestants are given unusually difficult words from foreign languages .

this is contrary to the explanation given ...

Pls let me know if my line of thinking is apt!!!!

this is an inference question. this means that you're looking for a statement that is REQUIRED TO BE TRUE.

choice (d) is the only statement that, according to this passage, MUST be true. note the mention of "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics" in the passage; this implies that correct spelling of foreign (non-english) words requires such knowledge.

choice (c) is not required by the passage; it's nearly impossible for a statement containing "should" to be required. moreover, and far worse, this statement is actually contrary to the spirit of the passage!
the main idea of the passage is that english spelling bees should be, basically, limited to native english words, and that many aspects of language - including the foreign influences on spelling - should be EXCLUDED from spelling contests. this is precisely the opposite of what is posited in choice (c).

hope this helps.

Hi Ron,
Not sure how are you able to conclude that.
Ursprache is an english word since it is written in english, and its meeting the author's criteria viz. spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

I dont understand why is then the author so against using foreign words like the one used above ?
In face, I dont understand why is the argument actually here. It conflicting its own statement in so many ways.

[jnelson0612]

Hi Ron,
Not sure how are you able to conclude that.
Ursprache is an english word since it is written in english, and its meeting the author's criteria viz. spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

I dont understand why is then the author so against using foreign words like the one used above ?
In face, I dont understand why is the argument actually here. It conflicting its own statement in so many ways.

Suyash, I'm not entirely understanding your question. We need to keep our mission in mind; on this type of question, we only have to choose an answer that must be true based on the information in the passage.

You sound like you are arguing with the author and wondering why the author thinks what he/she thinks. That is really not the point and won't help you get the question right. You just need to think that if all of this information is true, which of these answers MUST logically be true. The author's perspective or opinion and why he or she has that opinion is not something you should spend time considering.

[suyash.tiwari]

You sound like you are arguing with the author and wondering why the author thinks what he/she thinks. That is really not the point and won't help you get the question right. You just need to think that iif all of this information is true, which of these answers MUST logically be true. The author's perspective or opinion and why he or she has that opinion is not something you should spend time considering.

This is not what I meant Nelson.

Suyash, I'm not entirely understanding your question. We need to keep our mission in mind; on this type of question, we only have to choose an answer that must be true based on the information in the passage.

My confusion was that the argument on one hand was saying that only those words should be included in the spelling bee competition which have been anglicised in all aspects.

Then he goes on to say that, spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Aren't the above two statements contradicting each other ?
If, only spelling Engish words is the point of these contests,why does the authors of the arugment wants to use English words that have been anglicised in all aspects.
Why not simply use english words even if they have not been anglicised in all aspect, such as the word uprasche ?

[jnelson0612]

My confusion was that the argument on one hand was saying that only those words should be included in the spelling bee competition which have been anglicised in all aspects.

Then he goes on to say that, spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Aren't the above two statements contradicting each other ?
If, only spelling Engish words is the point of these contests,why does the authors of the arugment wants to use English words that have been anglicised in all aspects.
Why not simply use english words even if they have not been anglicised in all aspect, such as the word uprasche ?

Thank you so much for the clarification! That helps me. The author is saying that we should use ONLY use words that have been "anglicized" which means (according to dictionary.com) "to make or become English in form or character".

Also, notice that the author doesn't say that "uprasche" is an English word; the author says that it is a German word which is included in the English dictionary.

I did a review of the argument below, with my interpretation in blue. Hope that this helps!

Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache, which means "fame" in German. Okay, so this year's winner won by spelling a German word.

Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Why do we use foreign words to challenge our best spellers? Our own language is very rich.

Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, this German word IS in our dictionary
but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects going forward, let's only use words that have been anglicized (turned into English) in all aspects
because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests. people should only have to spell English words (anglicized words) in these contests

[tim]

As a German native (as an Austrian to be exact) I apparently know less about my language than an 8th grader of Jersey. Yeah, right. Possibly the judges of the belling spee trusted an unreliable source:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ursprache

Most important dictionary in German:
http://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/ursprache

Ursprache means only original language. This GMAT question may distract a German (and an Austrian or Swiss) test taker.

Regards

(Great GMAT CAT Macfriendly Application by the way)

i think the original unreliable source is this: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/nyreg ... .html?_r=1

it is very clear to me that our question writer misinterpreted the pun in the headline in this article. the real lesson here though is that you MUST leave outside knowledge behind when answering a CR or RC question, or you run a risk of getting the question wrong..