In each question below is given a statement followed by three assumptions…

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In each question below is given a statement followed by three assumptions numbered I, II and III. You have to consider the statement and the following assumptions, decide which of the assumptions is implicit in the statement and choose your answer accordingly.

Statement: "A rare opportunity to be a professional while you are at home." - An advertisement for computer literate housewives by a computer company.

Assumptions:

i. Some housewives simultaneously desire to become professional.

ii. Computer industry is growing at a fast pace.

iii. It is possible to be a professional as well as a housewife.

  1. A.

    Only I and II are implicit

  2. B.

    Only II and III are implicit

  3. C.

    Only I and III are implicit

  4. D.

    Only II is implicit

Attempted by 2 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C

An assumption is implicit in a statement when it is something the speaker takes for granted — unstated, but necessary for the statement to make sense at all. To test an assumption, ask whether the statement's own meaning depends on it being true, not whether it is true in general.

Here, the advertisement pitches a rare opportunity to be a professional while at home, aimed at computer-literate housewives. For this pitch to make sense as an advertisement at all, the advertiser must be taking for granted that such housewives do want a professional role, and that a professional role can genuinely be combined with running a household — the offer stands on exactly these two premises.

  • The desire premise: an advertisement built around "a rare opportunity to be a professional" only works as a pitch if at least some housewives in the target audience actually want professional work — otherwise the offer would attract no one.

  • The feasibility premise: the phrase "while you are at home" only makes sense as a selling point if combining a professional role with running a household is genuinely achievable — an impossible combination could not be advertised as an opportunity.

  • The industry-growth claim, by contrast, is outside the scope of the statement entirely — the advertisement is about a job opportunity for housewives, and it makes no claim, hint, or implication about how fast the computer industry itself is growing, so nothing about industry growth can be called implicit here.

So the statement rests on the desire and feasibility premises together; the industry-growth claim is not supported by anything in the statement.

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