SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

PROBLEM SOLVING AND INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

60-207 MID -TERM
Thursday October 18th 2004
11:30 am 12:50 pm
Dr. P.J. Boulos

INSTRUCTIONS: Take a few minutes to read through the exam. Ensure that your
name and student number is at the foot of each and every page. Make sure you have
pages 1-8. Once you have read the whole exam through, answer each of the sections
according to the specific requirements. The relative weight of each question is 20%.
Good luck.

1. Identify the Issue and the Conclusion of the following passage. Characterize the Issue.

People suffering from mental illness are nearly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as people with no
mental illness, according to a new study by Harvard Medical School researchers. The researchers found
that people with diagnosable mental illness comprise nearly 45 percent of the total U.S. tobacco market.
The study suggests that people with mental illness often use the nicotine from cigarettes to enhance their
mood, relieve anxiety and cope with stress.

Answer: Issue: Is smoking related to mental illness?

Conclusion: Yes. People suffering from mental illness are nearly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as
people with no mental illness.
This is a descriptive issue and conclusion, because it focuses on what IS the case, rather than on what
should be the case. This argument is typical in form to those presented when newspaper writers report on
a recent research study. Note that the first sentence represents a conclusion because it generalizes
beyond the actual research findings, suggesting that a conclusion has been inferred from the actual
research data. Such news reports often begin with such inferred generalizations from the research data.

2. Identify the Issue and the Conclusion of the following passage. Characterize the Issue.

The future of our nation depends on strong leadership. With crises all over the world and problems at
home, America cannot afford to have a weak president at the helm. But even in these times of trouble,
John Thomason wants to reduce the military budget by 24 percent in favor of pork-barrel spending

Name: ___________________________Student #: ________________________, page 1

programs. He even voted with the Democrats to cut military spending by 18 percent, and to force our
commanders to obey politically correct laws that hamper battlefield effectiveness!
Mike Porthos is committed to national security. As a Senator, he consistently voted to improve our
national defense, and the Citizens for a Responsible Defense gave him a 100 percent approval rating in
1998. On the home front, he has helped to safeguard the American way of life by cutting waste in the
Department of Transportation and exposing a major fraud scheme in the Department of Health and
Human Services.

In an uncertain world, will you vote for the security of our country or for unproven social programs? If you
want proven, experienced, and principled leadership, vote Mike Porthos on November 2.

Answer: Issue: Who should we vote for in the upcoming election? PRESCRIPTIVE
Conclusion: We should vote for Mike Porthos.

The first paragraph presents arguments against one candidate, and the second paragraph presents
arguments for Mr. Porhos. The third paragraph then encourages us to vote for the candidate praised in
the second paragraph. This is a common kind of political argument.

3. Identify the conclusion and list the reasons for the following passage.
Affirmative action is really just reverse racism. By giving preferential treatment to minority applicants,
employers are behaving no differently from those who favor whites. A person should be judged by his
merits, qualifications, and competence. Skin color should not be a consideration. Those who are best
qualified should be rewarded with the employment they seek. They have prepared carefully; to ignore that
preparation to meet a minority quota is unjust.

Abe Lincoln once said, "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong." Affirmative action
does just that. If employers are forced to employ lesser-qualified minority applicants, an image of minority
incompetence will be perpetuated. It is only right that those who have excelled and worked diligently
receive the opportunities they deserve.

CONCLUSION:
Affirmative action is unjust.

REASONS:

1. People should be judged according to their merits rather than their skin color.

2. The image of minority incompetence will intensify if affirmative action requires employers to hire
less qualified minority applicants.

4. Identify the reasons and conclusion. Then identify the words and phrases that are ambiguous in the
reasoning structures and explain why the ambiguity matters. Remember that key ambiguities are those
that influence your reaction to the reasoning; thus they will be in the reasoning structure.

Gene, I thought you were patriotic, but I guess I was wrong. I cant believe that you are unwilling to
support the Bush administrations efforts to impose restrictions on anti-war speech.

Answer: Conclusion: Gene is not patriotic.

Reason: Hes unwilling to support the Bush Administrations efforts to impose restriction on anti-war
speech.

Name: ___________________________Student #: ________________________, page 2

Key ambiguous words or phrases: The phrase patriotic in the conclusion could have many meanings,
and my willingness to see the relevance of the reason to the conclusion will depend on my definition of
patriotic. If I believe that patriotism refers to activities that show loyalty to the leaders of my country, then I
am more willing to see the reason as supportive of the conclusion than if I believe patriotic refers to
embracing the fundamental tenets of the constitution. Thus, I might see supporting restrictions on anti-
war speech as an unpatriotic act, if I were to adopt the second definition, and would thus reject the
reason.

5. How good is the evidence in the following passage? First, Identify the conclusions and reasons, then
identify the type of evidence provides (personal observation, case examples, research studies) in the
following passages.

A 1980 study conducted by Letty Pogrebin, Growing Up Free, yielded interesting information about the
nature of socialized sex roles in American society.

Pogrebins study asked 70 Wisconsin children aged three to five what they wanted to be when they grew
up. The boys list included fourteen occupations: fireman, policeman, father/husband, older person,
digger, dentist, astronaut, cowboy, truck-driver, engineer, baseball player, doctor, Superman, and the Six-
Million Dollar Man. Girls responded with eleven jobs: mother/sister, nurse, ballerina, older person, dentist,
teacher, babysitter, baton-twirler, ice skater, princess, and cowgirl.

When asked what they thought they would really be when they grew up, the girls usually modified their
choices to historically traditional roles (e.g. mother.) The boys, however, tended to change to more
exciting and adventurous roles (e.g. from husband to fireman).

The study suggests that children, even at very young ages, have been socialized into expected roles. The
children have clearly been victims of the societal propagation of sexually unequal role conditioning.
Unless something is done to alter the mindset of both current adults and those of the next generation, we
can expect such attitudes to be regenerated once more with the next crop of parents and children.

Study information adapted from Sociology, 2nd ed., by Ian Robertson. Copyright 1981 by Worth
Publishers, Inc.

Answer: Conclusion: Children, even at very young ages have been socialized into expected roles
because of societal propagation of sexually unequal role conditioning; and if we dont change things, this
pattern will continue.

Reason: A research study showed males selected typical male roles and women selected typical female
roles when asked at aged three to five what they wanted to be and what they thought they would be when
they grew up.

Analysis: First, we note that the evidence here is a research study, which means we need to ask a series
of questions about the context and the nature of the research. Only one study is presented, thus we
should wonder whether other research studies have found similar results. The study was also done 20
years ago, and thus it is possible that such attitudes have changed. A very important limitation is the
biased sample. It is small, only 70 children, and it is narrow, representing one state Wisconsin. No
information is provided about how the sample was selected, so we do not know its randomness. Its also
unclear whether responses for ages 3 to 5 would be similar to responses for ages 6 to 8, for example.
Maybe these preferences change even at a young age.

We should be very careful in generalizing from this study.

Name: ___________________________Student #: ________________________, page 3