Directions: Read the following passgae and choose the option that best answers the question that follows.

A reporter asked the chairman of a company: “Is your company going to continue to discriminate against women in its hiring and promotion policies?”

The above question of the reporter might be considered unfair for which of the following reasons?

I. Its construction seeks a “yes” or “no” answer where both might be inappropriate. II. It is internally inconsistent. III. It contains a hidden presupposition which the responder might wish to contest.

The question contains a hidden assumption: that the person questioned agrees that this company has, in the past, discriminated. I is applicable since the speaker may not wish to answer either “yes” nor “no”. He may wish to object to the question: “But I do not admit that our company has ever discriminated, so your question is unfair.” III is just another way of describing the difficulties we have just outlined. II is not applicable to the question. Since a simple question never actually makes a statement, it would seem impossible for it to contradict itself. A contradiction occurs only between statements or assertions.