LAST 28套 Test18

20.   An examination of corruption provides the basis for rejecting the view that an exact science of society can ever be constructed. As with all other social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy, it is intrinsically impossible to measure corruption, and this is not merely due to the fact that social science has not yet reached its goal, achievable to be sure, of developing adequate quantifying techniques. If people were ready to answer question about their embezzlements and bribes, it would mean that these practices had acquired the character of legitimate, taxable activities and had ceased to be corrupt. In other words, corruption must disappear if it is to be measurable.

Which one of the following most accurately states a hidden assumption that the author must make in order to advance the argument above?

(A) Some people believe that an exact science of society can be constructed.

(B) The primary purpose of an exact science to quantify and measure phenomena.

(C) An intrinsic characteristic of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy is that they cannot be measured.

(D) An exact science of social phenomena that involve deliberate secrecy cannot be constructed.

(E) An exact science can be constructed only when the phenomena it studies can be measured.

答案是E,之所以不选C是不是因为C不是hidden assumption?

C 所说的东西只是premise里面的内容，就是说Corruption本身是不能measure的，但是却没有将premise和conclusion连起来。文章的conclusion就是第一句话的后半部分取非：An exact science of society can ever be constructed. 所以答案里面肯定要有An exact science of society。

deliberate secrecy 以从句形式出现，是premise中的次要信息，assumption 的答案都是没有次要信息。

答案是E,之所以不选C是不是因为C不是hidden assumption?

在本题中，C不是assumption，而算的上一个事实判断（ cannot be ），不具备连接premise and conclusion的功能。

对了assumption与hidden assumption，在本题中是一致的。

多谢两位