LR Question 10 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Bernard: For which language, and thus which frequency…
QUESTION TYPE: Weaken
CONCLUSION: Bernard says that Cora is wrong when she says the original keyboard was designed to slow us down.
REASONING: The technological limitations Cora mentions have disappeared, yet we are still using the same keyboard.
ANALYSIS: We need to strengthen the idea that the original keyboard was designed to slow people down. So we must explain why nobody has switched to a more efficient keyboard.
The right answer tells us that people want to keep buying the keyboards on which they were trained.
___________
- CORRECT. If people learn on the original keyboard then they’ll want new machines with the same layout. It doesn’t matter if another keyboard is theoretically faster: it’s hard to switch.
- This doesn’t explain why word-processors have the same keyboard.
- This might lead us to believe that it’s worthwhile to keep the standard keyboard. But some other keyboard might be even faster, so this doesn’t help Cora.
- This means that people would have to stop typing while they learned the new layout. But it doesn’t tell us if that is particularly hard to do or how long it takes. So this doesn’t explain why we still have the old keyboard.
- Then why haven’t we switched? This explains nothing.
More Resources for Weaken Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Weaken questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers weaken questions.
Isn’t B (also) wrong because it says “most offices,” rather than just talking about “people” ? Thanks!
Office spaces and the people in them are some of the most predominant users of keyboards, so regardless of whether the answer choice is referring to people in general or just people at offices, this answer choice is incorrect because word-processing equipment still uses keyboards.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand the “this answer choice is incorrect because word-processing equipment still uses keyboards” part. Do you mind elaborating a bit? I don’t understand how it’s wrong UNLESS it’s because it’s talking about people in offices (versus people anywhere). Thanks!
No problem. Typewriters and word processing equipment both use standard keyboards, so (B) doesn’t address the issue that Bernard has raised, namely, that the keyboard is still as it was in the past. Whether we’re talking about typewriters or word-processing equipment, we need to find an answer choice that explains why the keyboard is still the same as it was in the past. So, (B) wouldn’t be a good way for Cora to reply to Bernard.