Is the text an argument? An argument here doesn’t mean a dispute or controversy. It is an attempt to show that something is true, or probably true, by employing something else — facts, assumptions, and/or reasoning — that seems to provide evidence that it is true.
CHALLENGE: Identify the Assumptions
In the prior chapter, we discussed the structure of the premises and conclusions in arguments. Assumptions are slightly more complicated. While the conclusion and the premises are stated in the argument, assumptions are not. Assumptions are implicit premises or ideas taken (or “assumed”) to be true but not directly stated.
In many of the Logical Reasoning questions, there will be something bridging the space between the premises and the conclusion. This bridge is what we call the assumptions.