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Difficulty: EasyStatement and Assumptions

A local health department issues the following public advisory: "Avoid consuming pre-cut fruits sold by roadside vendors to prevent the spread of stomach infections during the rainy season."

Below are two assumptions based on the advisory:
Assumption I: Pre-cut fruits sold by roadside vendors during the rainy season are likely to be contaminated and can cause stomach infections.
Assumption II: People do not consume pre-cut fruits during other seasons of the year.

Which of the given options correctly identifies the implicit assumption(s)?

  1. Only assumption I is implicitAnswer
  2. B
    Only assumption II is implicit
  3. C
    Neither assumption I nor II is implicit
  4. D
    Both assumptions I and II are implicit

Answer

The correct answer is that only assumption I is implicit.
Assumption I is implicit because the health advisory's warning is directly based on the premise that pre-cut fruits are a source of contamination and stomach infections during the rainy season. Without this premise, the advisory would be meaningless. Assumption II is not implicit because issuing a warning for a specific high-risk period does not imply that people do not consume the item at other times; it merely highlights when the risk is most significant.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the core message of the given statement.
The statement is a health advisory warning people not to eat pre-cut fruits from roadside vendors during the rainy season to prevent stomach infections.
Understanding the core message is necessary to identify the unstated premises (assumptions) behind the warning.
2
Evaluate Assumption I.
Assumption I states that these pre-cut fruits are likely to be contaminated and cause infections. This is a direct underlying premise; if this were not assumed to be true, the health department would have no reason to issue the specific warning.
An assumption is implicit if the statement cannot logically stand without it.
3
Evaluate Assumption II.
Assumption II claims that people do not consume pre-cut fruits during other seasons. The statement only addresses the elevated risk during the rainy season and makes no claims or assumptions about consumption habits during the rest of the year.
Assumptions must be strictly derived from the context of the statement without adding external generalizations.

Key Concept

An assumption is an unstated premise that the author of a statement takes for granted. A valid assumption must be essential for the statement to hold true.
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Topics

Statement and Assumptions

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