请教各位斑竹，兄弟就此谢过

春天的花儿会开

l两道lsat逻辑。8（sectionII）
8、During the 1980s the homicide rate in Britain rose by 50 percent. The weapon used usually was a knife. Potentially lethal knives are sold openly and legally in many shops. Most homicide deaths occur as a result of unpremeditated assaults within the family. Even if these are increasing, they would probably not result in deaths if it wenr not for the prevalence of such knives. Thus the blame lies with the permissiveness of the government that allows such lethal weapons to be sold.
Which one of the following is the strongest criticism of the argument above?
A. There are other means besides knives, such as guns or poison, that can be used to accomplish homicide by  a person who intends to cause the death of another.
E.If the potentialy lethal knives referred to are ordinary household knives, such knives were common before the rise in the homicide rate; but if they are weaponry, such knives are not generally available in households.
两个选项抉择后还是选了A
答案是E。文章不是用允许出售knives来解释homicide rate的rose吗？难道A不是他因削弱？？
14 、
Professor: Members of most species are able to communicate with other menbers of the same species, but it is not true that all communication can be called "language". The human communication system unquestionably qualifies as language. In fact, using language is a trait without which we would not be human.
Student: I understand that communication by itself is not language, but how do you know that the highly evloved communication systems of songbirds, dolphins, honeybees, and apes, for example, are not languages?
a. different species can have similar defining traits.
b. every human trait except using language is shared by at least one other species
c. not all languages are used to communicate.
d. using language is a trait humans do not share with any other species.
e. humans cannot communicate with members of other species.
the key: D
好像有点不对头，D应该是教授的暗含假设，student应该是对这个暗含假设提出疑问才打断教授的。为什么应该是D
谢谢各位斑竹，大家辛苦了...

saic_zzh

第一题说了一般的刀以前就可以到处买到，而最近的自杀大幅上升肯定就是由于其他的原因了，例如武器刀（呵呵，姑且这样翻译）。作为削弱，肯定是要说明这个武器刀不是杀人真凶咯，所以选项里说武器刀外面是买不到的，所以就不可能对自杀负责咯。很明显的削弱
A 的他因削弱的方向不对啊，原文中有一个probably，也就是说他本来就没有说所有的自杀都是由于这个小刀的原因啊，既然没有用绝对的语气，那么就算可以找出他因也不能算是削弱的。

第二题没有问题啊？

mindfree

1. "prevalence" is the key. If other weapons are substantially identical or readily available, A can be right. You made the assumption that twithout the knives, these other weapons can also be readily used for himicide in those cases and they will be used.

2. What is the question?

春天的花儿会开

感谢saic_zzh & mindfree兄。
另外第二题的问题是：the student has interpreted the professor's remarks to mean that

wxiaobin

我觉得第一题的关键在于 Thus the blame lies with the permissiveness of the government that allows such lethal "weapons" to be sold.

第一编看，我也错了

春天的花儿会开

谢谢，请教第二题？

saic_zzh

第二题看的不是很清楚，但有一点可以肯定
原问中说语言只是人成为人的一个特征之一，并没有说只有人才能够拥有语言
所以学生问的问题也很有道理，其他动物也可以有语言，教授又没有说凡是有了语言就是人类了。
至于题目中其他几个选项好象都关系不大，可是题目后的哪个提问真是搞不懂怎么回事