Each question has a set of four sequentially ordered statements. Each…
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Each question has a set of four sequentially ordered statements. Each statement can be classified as one of the following:
• Facts (F), which deal with the pieces of information that one has heard, seen or read, and which are open to discovery or verification.
• Inferences (I), which are conclusions drawn about unknown, on the basis of the known.
• Judgments (J), which are opinions that imply approval or disapproval of persons, objects, situations and occurrences in the past, the present or the future.
Select the answer option that best describes the set of four statements:
(A) This does not mean that United States of America should become more bourgeois.
(B) No one can imagine that peace will come to the Middle East countries without the help of US.
(C) Yet a political leader who understands that United States of America is not the uncontested hyper power of the 1990s. A leader who values soft power more than the hard version will bring a change for the better.
(D) An America led by such a man will listen more carefully to and work more closely with allies and rivals, will strive harder to respect the laws it has signed up to and might enter into new commitments, for instance to tackle climate change.
- A.
IIII
- B.
JJJJ
- C.
IIJJ
- D.
JJII
Attempted by 174 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Correct classification of the four statements:
First statement: "This does not mean that United States of America should become more bourgeois." — Judgment. It prescribes what ought to be ('should'), which is evaluative.
Second statement: "No one can imagine that peace will come to the Middle East countries without the help of US." — Inference. It draws a conclusion about a future outcome (necessity of US help), so it functions as an inferential prediction.
Third statement: "A leader who values soft power more than the hard version will bring a change for the better." — Judgment. It expresses approval and a value judgment about outcomes ('for the better').
Fourth statement: "An America led by such a man will listen more carefully ... and might enter into new commitments, for instance to tackle climate change." — Inference. It predicts likely future behaviors and outcomes, so it is inferential.
Final pattern: judgment, inference, judgment, inference.
Reason the original solution needed correction: labeling all four as judgments overlooks that some sentences are predictive conclusions about future events; those are best classified as inferences.