Necessary Assumption

Legal Scholar: The proposed legislation mandating transparency for pre-trial risk assessment algorithms is intended to eliminate racial bias in bail decisions. Under this mandate, developers must publicly disclose the precise mathematical weights their algorithms assign to various risk factors. However, the datasets used to train these algorithms are heavily skewed by historically biased arrest records. Since merely publishing these weights will not alter how the underlying algorithms mathematically process this historically biased training data, the proposed legislation will ultimately fail to eliminate racial bias in bail decisions.

Which of the following are assumptions on which the legal scholar’s argument depends? (Select all that apply.)

Public Health Official: The new occupational safety regulations implemented at the Apex Manufacturing plant have clearly been successful in making the facility a safer place to work. Despite the plant increasing its total manufacturing output by 30 percent this year, the annual number of reported workplace injuries has remained exactly the same as last year before the regulations took effect.

Statement: The public health official's argument depends on the assumption that the plant did not achieve its increase in output by heavily automating its processes and significantly reducing the size of its human workforce.

Sociolinguist: In the isolated community of Vespera, young adults use traditional idioms far less frequently than older adults do. Based on this observation, some researchers conclude that traditional idioms in Vespera are inevitably dying out. This conclusion is unwarranted. Young adults in Vespera are systematically excluded from the Council of Elders, a prestigious governing body where the use of traditional idioms is both expected and heavily utilized during all proceedings.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the sociolinguist's argument?

Retail Analyst: To combat declining profits, several bookstore chains introduced gourmet cafes and seating areas. Consequently, the average time customers spend in these stores has increased significantly. However, during the same period, overall book sales revenue at these chains has continued to decrease. Therefore, the introduction of cafes and seating has failed to help stimulate book sales.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the retail analyst's argument?

Maritime Archaeologist: The shipwreck of the Aurelia, a 19th-century merchant vessel, was recently located just outside the harbor of Port Caelum. The wreck contains a massive cargo of untreated timber. Historical logs confirm that Port Caelum was a major center for furniture manufacturing, which required vast amounts of untreated timber, during that era. Consequently, the Aurelia must have been arriving at Port Caelum to supply the local furniture industry when it foundered.

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

Archaeologist: Excavations at the ancient settlement of Kourion revealed that immediately following a severe, decades-long drought, nearly every household installed large ceramic vats. These vats are of a specific design historically used for dyeing fabrics. Clearly, to survive the devastating loss of agricultural revenue caused by the drought, Kourion's residents transitioned to a large-scale export industry centered on dyed textiles.

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

Agricultural economist: The newly developed cultivar of soybean, "Drought-Shield", requires 30 percent less irrigation water per hectare than the conventional soybean varieties currently grown in the arid central valley. Conventional soybeans currently account for over 70 percent of the central valley's agricultural water use. Therefore, if central valley farmers entirely replace their conventional soybeans with Drought-Shield, the central valley's total agricultural water consumption will decline substantially.

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

Historian: In the twelfth century, King Athelstan issued a decree requiring all regional lords to pay their annual tribute in grain rather than in silver coin. Historical records indicate that within five years of this decree, the royal treasury's silver reserves had dropped by more than half. It is clear that the implementation of Athelstan's decree was responsible for the severe depletion of the royal silver reserves.

Which of the following are assumptions on which the historian’s argument depends? (Select all that apply)

Excavations at the ancient Koris site have uncovered intricate bone flutes dating back approximately 40,000 years. The only hominid remains found at the Koris site from this time period belong to Neanderthals. Based on this evidence, archaeologists conclude that Neanderthals must have possessed the cognitive capacity to create complex musical instruments.

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

A recent study found that employees who voluntarily take frequent short breaks during the workday are more productive overall than employees who do not take such breaks. Based on this study, the human resources director concludes that if the company mandates frequent short breaks for all of its employees, the company's overall productivity will increase.

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

Consider the following argument:

City Council Member: Our city's public transit system is currently operating at a significant financial deficit. To eliminate this deficit, the transit authority has proposed a 20 percent increase in all bus and subway fares. However, our studies indicate that this fare increase will cause a 25 percent drop in total ridership as commuters switch to other modes of transportation. Therefore, implementing the fare increase will actually worsen the transit system's financial deficit rather than eliminate it.

The argument above necessarily assumes that the transit system's operating costs will not decrease sufficiently to offset the lost revenue when ridership drops by 25 percent.

Sociologist: During the late twentieth century, time-saving domestic technologies, such as automated dishwashers, were widely adopted by households. Paradoxically, surveys from that era indicate that adults in these households reported feeling significantly more pressed for time than adults had in preceding decades. It must be the case that the time saved by these technologies was quickly absorbed by new professional and social obligations, leaving these individuals with less actual free time than people previously possessed.

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

Consider the following argument:

The management of the City Tribune newspaper wants to increase the publication's overall profit margin. To achieve this, they plan to switch from their current high-quality printing paper to a significantly cheaper, lower-quality paper. By reducing these production costs, the management concludes that the newspaper's overall profit margin will undoubtedly increase.

Statement: For the management's conclusion to be logically drawn, the argument necessarily assumes that switching to the lower-quality paper will not cause a decrease in readership and sales severe enough to cancel out the financial savings gained from using the cheaper paper.

Architect: We should construct the new civic center using engineered mass timber instead of traditional concrete and steel. Engineered timber is just as structurally sound as concrete and steel, but it has a significantly lower lifecycle carbon footprint. Therefore, by using engineered timber rather than concrete and steel, the city will reduce the overall environmental impact of the civic center's construction.

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

Archaeologist: The iron artifacts recently excavated at the Qadan burial site contain trace amounts of vanadium. Vanadium is absent from the iron ores of Anatolia, which historians have long considered the sole region possessing iron-smelting technology during that era. However, vanadium is abundant in the raw iron ores found near the Qadan site. Consequently, these artifacts must have been manufactured locally by the Qadan people rather than acquired through long-distance trade.

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

Paleontologist: Some researchers conclude that *Drakosuchus*, a large Late Cretaceous crocodilian, was a fully marine reptile because its fossils were discovered in deep-ocean sedimentary deposits alongside marine fossils. However, *Drakosuchus* must have actually been a freshwater predator whose remains were swept out to sea after death. This is because the *Drakosuchus* bones exhibit severe surface pitting, a specific chemical degradation pattern known to occur when the bones of freshwater reptiles are exposed to high-salinity water for extended periods post-mortem.

The paleontologist's argument relies on which one of the following assumptions?

Conservationist: To prevent the local extinction of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, we must introduce controlled burns in the Pine Barrens to restore their natural open-canopy habitat. While critics warn that these fires will initially destroy some Karner blue larvae, the species relies exclusively on wild lupine for oviposition, and wild lupine seeds require fire-induced clearing to germinate and thrive. Thus, initiating a regimen of controlled burns will ultimately ensure a larger, more stable population of Karner blue butterflies in the Pine Barrens.

Which of the following are necessary assumptions on which the conservationist's argument depends? (Select all that apply)

Policy Analyst: In an effort to reduce the municipality's overall greenhouse gas emissions, the local government recently shifted all non-essential administrative staff to a four-day workweek, closing their respective office buildings completely on Fridays. Since this scheduling change took effect, metered energy consumption in these municipal facilities has decreased by exactly one-fifth on Fridays compared to the historical average. Therefore, this policy will inevitably yield a net reduction in the municipality's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Which of the following are assumptions on which the policy analyst's argument depends? (Select all that apply.)

Chef Mario’s new signature pasta dish features locally sourced organic white truffles. These truffles cost the restaurant significantly more per ounce than any other ingredient currently used in the kitchen. Because of the extreme cost of this single ingredient, Chef Mario's new pasta dish will have the highest menu price of any item offered at the restaurant.

Which of the following assumptions are logically necessary for the conclusion to be properly drawn? (Select all that apply)

Biologist: The presence of xylotoxin in the venom of the deep-sea viperfish has traditionally been explained as an evolutionary adaptation for immobilizing highly evasive prey. However, we now know that the viperfish's primary food source, the sluggish abyssal slug, possesses complete immunity to xylotoxin. Given that the viperfish only rarely encounters highly evasive species in its deep-sea habitat, the xylotoxin must actually serve a strictly non-predatory physiological function.

Evaluate the following statement regarding the argument above:

The biologist's argument logically depends on the assumption that an evolutionary trait cannot be maintained in a species exclusively for a predatory function that is utilized only on rare occasions.