Public reports by national commissions, governors’ conferences, and leadership groups have stressed the great need for better understanding of international affairs by the citizenry. If the country is to remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness, the need is undeniable. If there is such a need for the citizenry to have a better understanding of international affairs, then all of our new teachers must be prepared to teach their subject matter with an international orientation.
If all of the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?
OPTIONS[A]. If the country is to remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness, then new teachers must be prepared to teach their subject matter with an international orientation.
[B]. If new teachers are prepared to teach their subject matter with an international orientation, then the country will remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness.
[C]. If there is better understanding of international affairs by the citizenry, then the country will remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness.
[D]. If the country is to remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness, then there is no need for the citizenry to have a better understanding of international affairs.
[E]. Public reports from various groups and commissions have stressed the need for a more international orientation in the education of teachers.
Explanation:
This is simply a matter of a very common chain of argument: IF X, then Y. If Y, then Z. Therefore, if X, then Z. Specifically: If the country is to remain internationally competitive, then there is an undeniable need for citizens to better understand international affairs. If there’s a need for this better understanding of international affairs, then all of our new teachers must be prepared to teach their subject matter with an international orientation. This allows us to infer that the first statement leads to the third: If the country is to remain internationally competitive, then all of our new teachers must be prepared to teach their subjects with an international orientation.
(B) and (C), like many choices before them on this test, confuse necessary and sufficient conditions. The stimulus establishes the ability of new teachers to teach with an international focus as necessary for the country to remain competitive. We can’t infer, as (B) suggests, that it’s sufficient for this. And as for (C), better understanding of international affairs by our citizens is also necessary, but not sufficient, for the country to remain competitive.
(D) completely denies the author’s first if-then statement, which is an important premise in the argument.
(E) All we’re told about public reports is that they stressed the need for citizens to better understand international affairs. We have no evidence that they said anything about training teachers to teach with an international focus—that requirement was inserted by the author.
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