An air traveler in Beijing cannot fly to Lhasa without first flying to Chengdu. Unfortunately, an air traveler in Beijing must fly to Xian before flying to Chengdu. Any air traveler who flies from Beijing to Lhasa, therefore, cannot avoid flying to Xian.The pattern of reasoning exhibited by the argument above is most similar to that exhibited by which one of the following?
Answer(s): B
The plethora of proper names needn't obscure the essential logic. The conclusion simply asserts that a certain activity (the BeijingLhasa flight) requires a certain necessary condition. Only options [An ice-sculpture artist cannot reach...] and [One cannot properly identify...] have conclusions in that form. Option [A doctor cannot prescribe porozine for...] is an assertion of likelihood; [It is impossible to be fluent in...] asserts two conditions each of which is sufficient to bring about a result; and [In the City Ballet Company any...] is in the algebraic form Some X are Y.
Supervisor: Our next budget proposal will probably be approved, because normally about half of all budget proposals that the vice president considers are approved, and our last five budget proposals have all been turned down.The supervisor's reasoning is flawed because it presumes, without giving warrant, that
Answer(s): C
The prediction that the next proposal will probably be approved is based on two facts: the last 5 got thumbs down, and "normally about half" get thumbs up. You needn't know the total number of proposals submitted to recognize that option [having the last five budget...] is the problem: The supervisor has no reason to believe that the last 5 turn downs are relevant, in any way, to the next budget decision. If the V.P. considers each proposal on its own merits only, then the probability of the next one's success is unaffected, at least in the way the supervisor argues.
The number of airplanes equipped with a new anticollision device has increased steadily during the past two years. During the same period, it has become increasingly common for key information about an airplane's altitude and speed to disappear suddenly from air traffic controllers' screens. The new anticollision device, which operates at the same frequency as air traffic radar, is therefore responsible for the sudden disappearance of key information.Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
Answer(s): D
The cause of the sudden disappearance of in-flight data is the new anticollision device. That's the author's conclusion, anyway, and it's based on the coincidence of the two things -- that is, the more widespread usage of the device and the increase in disappearances have occurred "during the same period." That's as it may be.But if option [Key information began...] is true, and the disappearing-data phenomenon predates the device's testing (not even its introduction!) by a full three months, then suspicions must be raised that the cause of the disappearing data lies elsewhere.
North American eastern white cedars grow both on cliff faces and in forests. Cedars growing on exposed cliff faces receive very few nutrients, and rarely grow bigger than one-tenth the height of cedars growing in forests, where they benefit from moisture and good soil. Yet few eastern white cedars found in forests are as old as four hundred years, while many on cliff faces are more than five hundred years old.Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the difference in the ages of the cedars on cliff faces and those in forests?
The essence of the paradox about the two sets of cedars goes like this: One set grows in a hospitable forest locale and another grows on hardscrabble cliff faces, yet the cliff cedars seem to be thriving better -- in general they're older than the forest cedars. Some outside factor must account for the difference in longevity, and you might not have predicted forest fires but certainly should not have been surprised to encounter [In areas where eastern white...]. That forests are far more susceptible to tree-killing blazes than are cliffs would readily account for the longer life of the cliff cedars.
Brewer: All children should be given the opportunity to participate in competitive sports; these activities provide an unsurpassed opportunity to engage children's emotions and so stimulate them to put maximum effort into attaining high athletic standards.Polanski: I disagree. Competitive athletics does, over time, produce a handful of highly motivated children with a desire to excel at an activity, but many children have no taste for competition, and to make them participate would only cause them to develop an antipathy toward athletics.Polanski's response most strongly supports the contention that Polanski misunderstood Brewer to be asserting that
Polanski argues that kids who don't care for competition could be driven to hate sports if forced to compete. So he must have heard Brewer say [children should be required to...], that a kid should be forced to compete whether s/he like sit or not. Of course Brewer said nothing of the kind; all she said was that all kids should have the chance to compete. But Polanski failed to hear that, and that was his mistake.
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