Q14 - Debate coach: Britta's command of the historical facts

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Necessary Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: R's performance was as good as B's.
Evidence: Even though B's command of facts was better, we should also consider how reasonable the arguments were, regardless of the underlying facts.

Answer Anticipation:
This feels like a Fill in the Blank assumption. Our author has not said, but is clearly assuming, that ROBERT won the battle of "how reasonable the debaters' arguments were".

Correct Answer:
B

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) The author needs to assume that Robert was BETTER, not that Britta was BAD.

(B) YES, if R's arguments were equally or less reasonable than B's, then the author would have no reason to conclude that R did just as well as B.

(C) "require" is dangerously strong. The author thinks that "how reasonable your arguments were" is relevant to evaluating your debate performance, but the whole argument is in RELATIVE terms. The author isn't assuming anything about the ABSOLUTE ideas of "a GOOD performance" or "a VERY REASONABLE argument".

(D) There's no reason the author needs to assume that B wasn't in full command of the facts. If she WERE in full command of the facts, it wouldn't change the argument at all.

(E) "requires" is dangerously strong. Again, the author is scoring the debate in RELATIVE terms, who had BETTER command of the facts and whose arguments were MORE reasonable. The author doesn't need to assume that winning requires a good command. He might believe that better command of facts + more reasonable arguments is enough to win a debate, as long as your opponent had worse command of facts + less reasonable arguments.

Takeaway/Pattern: This seems like an easier question, for where it is in the section. A lot of Necessary Assumption questions are just testing this, "go ahead and SPELL OUT THE IMPLIED IDEA".

If I argued, "Dave said we should go to Taco Town, because it's closer. But we should also consider which restaurant is cheaper. Hence, we should go to Fajitaville."

What am I assuming?
Fajitaville is cheaper.

#officialexplanation

[CiciC626]

I still don't understand.
The conclusion is R is as good as B. Therefore, there is no winning in this comparison. In the premise, it was given "regardless of ability to bring the fact", which makes me think the ability to bring facts doesn't matter in evaluating performance. thus only "how reasonable" matters. since R is as good as B, the reasoning is equally good. In the example Taco Town vs Fajitaville, Fajitaville was picked which means Fajitaville is "better", which is different from "R is as good as B".

Would you please further explain the question? Thank you very much

[Misti Duvall]

I still don't understand.
The conclusion is R is as good as B. Therefore, there is no winning in this comparison. In the premise, it was given "regardless of ability to bring the fact", which makes me think the ability to bring facts doesn't matter in evaluating performance. thus only "how reasonable" matters. since R is as good as B, the reasoning is equally good. In the example Taco Town vs Fajitaville, Fajitaville was picked which means Fajitaville is "better", which is different from "R is as good as B".

Would you please further explain the question? Thank you very much

Sure! You're right the conclusion is that R's performance was as good as B's. And we know from the premises that B's command of the historical facts was better. So if R and B's reasoning was equally good, B is still ahead, since B was better on the facts. But if R's reasoning was better than B's, then they could be equal overall.

I think both the facts and the reasonableness matter; it's just that the premise gives us info about R v. B on the facts, but not on the reasonableness.

Hope this helps.

[fionam898]

I still don't understand what the correct answer is... This task interested me because I want to become a debate coach. I've been dreaming about this for a long time and now I'm taking the course how to become a speaker. Speaking skills are important for any person, but especially for a coach. I graduated from the University of International Relations and only now I have finally decided who I want to work for.
I really hope all my dreams come true and I can achieve all my goals.