plex6 wrote:
After taking out options, my remaining options are A & B, but I picked B because following reason
A: It could have following implication, which makes me get rid this option after second consideration-- If the poll published in the last week prior to the voting, it could affect more people's voting decisions due to being closer to the voting thus have a better momentum, therefore distort the result of the election more, meaning it strengthens the conclusion
B: It could have two implications, which one which can weaken the argument-- B1: If the voting result is uneven, the poll will not be published which "distortion of voting result" will not happen, thus weakening the argument-- B2: If the voting result is even, the poll will be published which will distort voting result, thus strengthening the argument
Based on those thinking process, I picked B. Can someone please help to explain what part did I wrong in evaluating my answers? Thanks before
The key on this is to be really, really careful when interpreting the meaning of answer choices.
(A) talks about the period
during the final two weeks leading up to election.
During this period includes the final week. So, according to (A), any polls published during this period will
not have any bearing on the result of the election. That weakens the author's argument that we should ban such polls.
As for (B), take another look at the exct language of the answer choice:
Quote:
The publication of poll results would not decide the winner of an uneven election race.
In the scenario laid out by (B), the poll results could be published for any election race. It's just that this publication would not
decide the winner in certain races (uneven ones, to be specific).
But what about
even election races? If polls could decide the winner in THOSE races, that means that the polls are indeed distorting the outcome of some elections.
That's why (B) isn't a great weakener -- the author cares about ALL election races, and (B) just tells us that the polls don't matter for
some races.
I hope that helps!