Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumNecessary Assumption

Mayor: To attract more young families to our city, we must invest heavily in expanding our network of public parks. A comprehensive statewide survey reveals that the vast majority of young families cite access to ample green spaces as a primary factor when choosing a municipality in which to settle.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the mayor's argument depends?

  1. A
    Expanding the public parks network is the single most effective way for the city to attract young families.
  2. B
    Municipalities with extensive public park networks typically attract larger numbers of young families than municipalities without such networks.
  3. Prospective young families do not currently view the city's existing green spaces as fully adequate for their needs.Answer
  4. D
    If the city fails to expand its network of public parks, the number of young families currently living in the city will significantly decrease.
  5. E
    The young families who participated in the statewide survey are not primarily concerned with the quality of the city's public school system.

Answer

Prospective young families do not currently view the city's existing green spaces as fully adequate for their needs.
The correct answer acts as a 'defender' assumption. The mayor claims that creating more parks will attract young families because they desire green spaces. However, this logic only holds if the city is currently lacking in green spaces from the perspective of those families. If the city already had perfectly adequate parks, expanding them would yield no additional demographic benefit based on the survey's findings. Therefore, the argument depends on the assumption that current green spaces are inadequate.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the main conclusion of the argument.
The conclusion is that expanding the network of public parks will attract more young families to the city.
This establishes the causal outcome the mayor believes the proposed investment will achieve.
2
Identify the premises supporting the conclusion.
The primary premise is a survey indicating that young families consider access to ample green spaces a primary factor in choosing where to live.
This shows the evidence the mayor uses to justify the proposed park expansion.
3
Locate the logical gap between the premises and the conclusion.
The evidence shows young families want green spaces, and the conclusion says adding MORE parks will attract them. The gap is the assumption that the city does not already have enough parks to satisfy this desire.
A necessary assumption must bridge this gap or defend the argument against potential weaknesses.
4
Apply the Negation Test to the candidate answer choices.
Negating the correct statement yields: 'Prospective young families ALREADY view the city's existing green spaces as fully adequate.' If this is true, adding more parks would not act as a draw, destroying the mayor's argument.
The Negation Test definitively proves whether a statement is strictly necessary for the argument to hold.

Key Concept

Necessary Assumption (Defender Pattern)
Rate this question

Topics

Necessary Assumption

More questions from this topic