any native english speaker? you gotta help me with this topic

[billconan]

hi guys, i'm a student preparing GRE test. i've come acrose with an issue topic describe like this: if people disregard the great works of the past, it is because these works no longer answer the needs of the present.

this is really a confused topic, is that "if..." part a presupposition? is that mean i should write an essay that presume people usually disregard past first and argue the different reasons for doing so. and if i write something concerning that people do not disregard history and they show respect to it, will it be an irelevant article?

i do not agree that people disregard the past, for most of the time they respect it and make use of it, so if the "if..." part is really a prerequisite or presupposition for writing this article, then i find it really hard.

please help me with this, thank you.

[Tdol]

In your example, it suggests that people may disregard the past and then second part gives the reason. However, it doesn't say explicitly that they do, so there is room to disagree with the statement by saying that this is not the case. But if you say that this is not the case, you would also have to explain that the second half is not true and that they don't ignore it because it is relevant to the needs of the present.