Morning Wave: You and your newspaper have unfairly discriminated against my letters. I have submitted forty-three letters in the last three years and you have not published a single one of them! It’s all because I won the Freedom Award four years ago and your letter editor Mr. Zhao thought he himself should have been the winner!
People’s Daily editor-in-chief: That is absurd! Our editorial policy and practice have been fair to all submissions under the guidance of the ruling party of China. Furthermore, since our letter editor Mr. Zhao judges all submissions for publication without knowing the names of the writers of those submissions, he could not have known that you wrote those letters.
The editor-in-chief makes which one of the following assumptions when replying to Morning Wave’s discrimination charges?
(A) The letter editor Mr. Zhao bears no grudge against Morning Wave after missing the award.
(B) It is not unusual for writers to submit many letters to the People’s Daily without ever having any of their submissions accepted.
(C) The letter editor’s decisions on which letters to publish have nothing to do with the guidance of the ruling party of China.
(D) The letter editor cannot tell whether the letters were submitted by Mr. Morning Wave unless Mr. Morning Wave’s name is attached thereto.
(E) Mr. Morning Wave used a fake name when submitting his letters to the People’s Daily.
答案是B吗? It is not unusual.... means it is usual for writers to submit many letters to the People's Daily without ever having any of their submissions accepted. Morning wave has already submitted 43 letters and editor-in-chief states that they are fair in judging the letters, hence assuming that submitting as many as 43 letters without being published is considered to be usual.
The answer must be C then..If the letter has to do with the guidance of the ruling party of China then that might be the reason why it wasn't published! But, the editor-in-chief assumes that was not the case.
However, in China the guidance from the ruling party is like the Bible in the West. Who dares to turn a blind eye to that might get a black eye the next day! So the letter editor has to respect the Party's guidance while making the decisions on publishing letters. Therefore, C is NOT the assumption the editor-in-chief makes.
If Mr. Morning Wave always uses specific words, for example, "from the winner of the Freedom Award", or focuses on specific touchy subjects such as you-know-what, in his forty some letters submitted, Mr. Zhao would easily recognize who wrote those letters, pick the letters out, and place the letters in file 13.
Back to the techical part, you have to analyze and understand the logic behind the editor-in-chief's argument to find the missing assumption. He claims that Mr. Zhao has no way of knowing who the writers are for all the submissions reviewed since the writers' names are blocked. Based on this, he proclaimed that the reviewing process is fair. The part about party guidance is a distraction. Accordingly, the right answer has to buttress the argument, especially the premise made that Mr. Zhao would not know the writer's name for each letter.
With this game plan in mind, you would have a much easier job to choose the right answer.