Meaning of the sentence: EU's chief negotiator has reported that Brexit negotiations are faltering, and the UK government's hopes to talk to EU this autumn about a future trade deal are likely to be dashed.
The plural noun hopes requires the plural verb look for the sentence to have an agreement between the subject and the verb. The modifiers this autumn and increasingly should be placed appropriately for the sentence's meaning to come through. The modifier this autumn should modify talks with EU. Similarly, increasingly should modify likely.
Argument construction
For a decade, Ace Motor Company had been recruiting most of its automobile mechanics from formal technical schools. But this year, the company recruited significantly lesser numbers of automobile mechanics from those formal technical schools; surprisingly, the company recruited significantly larger numbers of automobile mechanics who did not do any formal qualifying course from any technical school.
Predict a Resolution
What is the discrepancy here?
The discrepancy is: For last 10 years, Ace Motor Company had a policy of recruiting automobile mechanics that are formally qualified, but this year, the company did not do so and worked against its policy by recruiting those automobile mechanics that have not done any formal course.
Let's predict a few resolutions.
Predictive Resolution 1: Recruits from a technical school demand relatively higher salary package than those who did not do any course and Ace Motor Company cannot afford to offer such high salaries.
Predictive Resolution 2: The quality of recruits from technical schools has been deteriorating for the last few years, such that there is no difference any more between the performance of recruits from technical schools and the recruits without any formal qualifications.
Predictive Resolution 3: There might have been a change in the personnel requirements of the Ace Motor Company this year. Perhaps the work it is going to do in the next one year requires less technical skills than the work it has been doing so far, and so, it needs more 'raw manpower' than 'skilled manpower' this year.
Or, if the company's work remains as skill-demanding as before, the company may have found some new way of ensuring that its workers have those skills, instead of simply relying on their qualifying certificates from the technical schools.
Argument construction
Europe's currency Euro is declining; this is beneficial for some sectors and countries but a matter of worry for some sectors and countries. The German economy is performing well with sales in everything from heavy industry to hotels and service providers. The same goes for French economy with its special emphasis on defense products. Despite this, the European Central Bank (ECB) has warned that the value of the Euro will decrease by at least 3 percent over the next six months, thus, ECB must take measures to control the depreciation of Euro.
Let's derive the conclusion.
Conclusion: The Euro will depreciate by at least 3 percent over the next six months.
Predict an Assumption
Since the argument states that the decline in the value of Europe's currency Euro is proving a mixed blessing, some sectors or countries that are mainly exporters (they will get more value for their exported products) would benefit, while some sectors or countries that are mainly importers (they will have to pay more for their imported products) would suffer.
Since ECB is certain that Euro would depreciate by at least 3%, it would assume that Europe's total import exceeds total export.
Predictive Assumption 1: Europe's total import exceeds total export.
The Europe continent comprises many countries and the argument talks about only two booming economies – Germany and France. Despite great performance by the German and French economies, the ECB's decision to intervene indicates that they would assume that most of the other economies must not be doing good.
Predictive Assumption 2: Barring few countries such as Germany and France, many countries are facing tough times owing mainly to declining Euro.
Argument construction
City International School employs qualified teachers and teaches through a revamped course curriculum. Still, the social science and geography scores for grade X students are not satisfactory for last three years. Thus, the parents recommended to the principal that social science and geography be taught in their native language instead of in English.
Conclusion: Social science and geography should be taught in the native language.
Understand the question
The question: The recommendation of parents is flawed because they failed to consider whether __________.
We are asked to find the flaw in parents' recommendation to the principal because they did not consider whether , in making the conclusion.
Predict a Flaw
Since the scores of social science and geography have not been satisfactory for the last three years, the parents came up with a solution that these two subjects should not be taught in English but in the native language.
The underlying assumption playing in the parents' mind is that due to poor comprehension of the content of text-heavy subjects such as social science and geography, the result is not showing up.
Predictive Assumption: The content of text-heavy subjects such as social science and geography cannot be better absorbed in English but in the native language.
Let's find out the flaw in the assumption.
What if the specific teacher who teaches both the subjects has the necessary qualifications but is not a good teacher and is not able to make his subject interesting to the students?
What if the textbooks for both the subjects are not good enough?
There can be many possible reasons for the poor show at these two subjects. But the parents pinpoint English language as the only reason for the unsatisfactory scores.
This is a 'Find the Flaw' question. We must understand the difference between 'Weaken the argument' question type and 'Find the Flaw' question type since you may get confused between the two.
In a 'Weaken the argument' question, you are supposed to select an additional information that makes the conclusion unbelievable. However, in a 'Find the Flaw' question, you are supposed to find a flaw in the reasoning done to reach to the conclusion.
The options of a 'Weaken the argument' question relate only to the question argument. They are factual statements. However, the options of a 'Find the Flaw' are abstract in nature. They are generic in nature, not specific to the argument.
Since the options would use some abstract terms, it is wise to quickly scan the five options.
We see that the options used definition-kind of terms such as 'undesirable outcome,' 'exception,' 'cause,' 'affect,' and 'concern'.
We must frame our response using these terms.
We find that parents see teaching Social science and geography in English as the only cause, resulting in an undesirable outcome of unsatisfactory scores.
The flaw in parents' reasoning is that there may be other cause(s), (apart from teaching in English) resulting in the undesirable outcome (unsatisfactory scores).
Argument construction
Let us understand the argument. The argument is simple to follow. An IT company primarily deals in the cloud computing business. There is an individual IT consultant who specializes in IT infrastructure services. The conclusion made is that the individual IT consultant cannot be a consultant at the referred IT company. We have to find out the missing logic that leads to such a conclusion.
Thus, though this seems to be a 'complete the argument' question, it is actually a 'find the assumption' question.
Conclusion: Alex surely cannot be a consultant at Dexter Solutions.
Predict an Assumption
The IT company deals primarily in cloud computing. It does not imply that it cannot deal in other businesses such as IT infrastructure services. It may do so. Similarly, the IT consultant Alex specializes in IT infrastructure services, but this does not imply that he cannot deal in other businesses such as cloud computing. He may do so.
Since the conclusion states that Alex surely cannot be a consultant at Dexter Solutions, it implies that no skill of Alex and no business domain of Dexter are common.
Predictive Assumption: No employable skill of Alex and no business domain of Dexter are common.
Argument construction
The US is grappling under job redundancies for skilled but unemployed youth. To address this problem, Federal government is planning to set up an investment fund to provide capital for garage startup enterprises. It can be understood that with the help of capital, the skilled but unemployed persons could start their small business (garage startup enterprises). Many criticized this move; they pointed out that Federal light-industry programs (one of which will be the proposed garage enterprise support program) frequently harm the interest of other US social groups (other small businesses & unskilled individuals) that do not belong to the categories of enterprise served by these programs.
Conclusion: Federal light-industry programs will adversely impact those who are not part of Federal light-industry programs.
Predict a Strengthener
By providing new information, we have to strengthen the conclusion that if the proposed investment fund supports Federal light-industry programs, the other US social groups that are not the beneficiaries of the program will suffer.
Predictive Strengthener 1: The types of products and services that the 'other US social groups' (Category 1) deal in and that the 'skilled unemployed' group (Category 2) that would be the beneficiary of Federal light-industry programs deals in are same.
So, there is a competition between Categories 1 and 2 and Category 2 will grow at the expense of Category 1.
Predictive Strengthener 2: Currently, the Federal government does not have any program to support the other US social groups (Category 1), thereby making their position vulnerable if Category 2 grows strong.
Predictive Strengthener 3: To be the beneficiaries of Federal light-industry programs, special qualification is mandatory that the other US social groups does not possess.
Argument construction
In the next decade, the demand for a certain type of car will go down. Companies generally order steel plating 5 years in advance to get the maximum discount from suppliers. It follows that the companies would have ordered steel plating for this type of car 5 years in advance when these types of cars had consistent demand. Now, after the companies learnt that the demand for this car type will go down, they want to postpone the orders for steel plating.
Predict an Evaluator
The major automobile companies tread cautiously. They anticipate that if the demand for the large, family-sized vehicles slumps to such an extent that they have to stop making these types of vehicles, then the pre-ordered steel plating would go waste and become a liability for them. However, if the demand for these types of vehicles does not slump to the extent that they have to stop making these types of vehicles, they may then, at that point in time, order the required amount of steel plating, though they will not get the hefty discount they would have got with an order made 5-years in advance. This seems to be the most rational decision.
Before postponing the orders, the major automobile companies must evaluate that if they would need steel plating in future, its supply will remain consistent and also, that its price is not likely to rise significantly higher than the present rates.
Predictive evaluator 1: Is the availability and the supply of steel plating likely to be consistent in the future?
Predictive evaluator 2: Will the price of steel plating rise significantly in future?
Argument construction
Instead of Federal government providing financial support to local communities, the communities themselves will have right to generate revenue and spend for the community needs. The proponents of this move hail this as a step forward on the road to true democracy. They claim that by making communities responsible for financing everything from health, welfare and education to the emergency services and housing, standards of services will improve, and it would also nurture a greater sense of belonging to community. The author claims that although such a move would mean that thickly populated areas would have more funds because they would then have a greater tax base; on the other hand, thinly populated, rural communities would still vie for subsidy from Federal sources so that they can also fund their services.
Predict Role Plays
Let's dissect this argument.
Statement 1 (Boldface 1) (The move to … democracy): This is a claim. It asserts that in order to attain true democracy, the Federal government must make local communities self-sustainable by empowering them to generate and spend fund for their services.
So, BF1 is a claim made by the proponents.
Statement 2: (They claim … community.) This is an extension of the claim made by proponents. Its purpose is to articulate the objectives laid out in the claim.
Statement 3 (Boldface 2): (However, … Federal sources.). This is a claim made by the author. The author puts his findings across and challenges the claim made by proponents to attain the true democracy. While the proponents argue that the local communities must be responsible for generating resources for their services, the author counters it by stating that thickly populated areas can surely do it, thinly populated areas would languish as they would still be dependent on the subsidies from the Federal government. Thus, the claim of attaining the true democracy is far from reality.
So, BF2 is a claim made by the author that goes against that of the proponents.
Thus, BF1 (claim by the proponents) is countered by BF2 (claim by the author).
Argument construction
A Senator criticized the Frequent Flyer schemes, operated by almost all major American airlines, saying it is like giving bribe to major corporations to acquire their accounts. These corporation pay excessively high sums to buy Frequent Flyer tokens from airlines and pass these discount-seeking tokens to their employees to give them untaxed rewards. In turn, upon encashing the tokens, the employees get discounted airline tickets. This implies that the price of tickets for the general public is kept artificially high and compared to privileged employees, they end up paying more. However, the VP of American Airlines, responded to the criticism by saying the Frequent Flyer scheme was also enjoyed by millions of Americans who could get Frequent Flyer tokens from supermarket purchases and credit card transactions.
Predict a Weakener
Let's write down the claim.
Claim: Benefit of Frequent Flyer scheme is not exclusive to major corporations; general public can also get the same benefit as the employees of major corporations do.
Our job is to find a flaw in the claim, or in other words, we need to weaken the claim.
What if a large number of airline tickets are reserved for major corporations? Well, in that case there would be only a few airline tickets available for general public. So, though they may have Frequent Flyer tokens, they cannot utilize them.
Predictive Weakener 1: A large number of airline tickets are reserved for major corporations.
What if there are only a few supermarkets and only a few credit card companies that offer Frequent Flyer tokens? Well, in that case, only a few people can get the benefit of the scheme.
Predictive Weakener 2: Only a few supermarkets and credit card companies offer Frequent Flyer tokens.
There can be one or two more predictive weakeners; however, you need not think of more than two.
Argument construction
TMC cars company which used to focus only on the US is now a global company. Now, its products appeal globally and it inducts its employees from all over the world. All of the mechanical engineers have taken an in-house training scheme. No engineer specializing in hydraulics (a faculty of mechanical engineering) has won the prestigious Order of Merit (OoM). Only winners of the Order of Merit have become department heads.
Predict an Inference
By reading the argument, we see that there are a lot of data and we may have to deal with overlapping, partial overlapping, and non-overlapping sets.
Let's list down the information.
All mechanical engineers ⇒
In-house training
No engineer specializing in hydraulics ⇒
Order of Merit (OoM)
Order of Merit ⇒
Department heads
Since only the winners of the Order of Merit (OoM) have become department heads, and no engineer specializing in hydraulics has won Order of Merit (OoM), the question arises, "Who qualifies to be the department head of hydraulics department?"
We can infer that department head of hydraulics department must then be a non-engineer who won Order of Merit (OoM).
Predictive Inference 1: Department head of hydraulics department is non-engineer, winner of Order of Merit (OoM).
Also, since all the mechanical engineers are the product of in-house training, and the department head of hydraulics department must then be a non-engineer, it follows that and the department head of hydraulics department is not a product of in-house training.
Predictive Inference 2: The department head of hydraulics department is not a product of in-house training.
Argument construction
Hotels for tourist developments near sea distract female turtles. These multi-storied hotels light themselves with neon-lit discos lights that obscure the moonlight; when female turtles do not see moon, a guidepost to direct them to sea, they get confused and assume hotel pools as sea, thereby laying their eggs in their flowerbeds. Once the eggs hatch, the hatchlings are unable to find their way to the sea and eventually die. Though there are stringent building regulations to protect the turtles, they are being broken openly by organized criminals. These criminal builders either bribe or terrorize government officials to not enforce regulations on them.
Predict an Inference
Why do female turtles need moonlight?
Is it needed so that they can properly see and move to sea? The answer is no. Because, even now, the beaches and the way to the beaches must have more than sufficient light since the hotels are high and use neon-lights. So, if the moonlight merely functioned as a source of light for the female turtles, then there would not have been much problem for them; they still have ample light (from the hotels) available.
So, we infer that moonlight must be more than a mere source of light for the turtles.
Probably, the purpose of moonlight is to give the turtles a sense of direction. Since the moonlight is now obscured by tall structures and neon-lights, the female turtles lose direction and in confusion they assume pool as sea.
Predictive Inference: Turtles need moonlight to get a sense of direction
