Self-study
Over the past 20 years, skiing has become a relatively safe sport due to improvements in ski equipment. █████ ███ ████ █ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██ █████ ████
Summarize Argument
The argument concludes that not every type of ski injury has seen decreasing numbers, although the number of ski injuries has decreased overall. This is supported with the statistic that knee injuries, which used to represent 11 percent of ski injuries, now represent 16 percent.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is a cookie-cutter flaw of confusing amounts and percentages. The argument’s conclusion is about the amount of different types of ski injuries, but the evidence is only about percentages. However, it’s entirely possible that there are fewer knee injuries now, even though they account for a greater percentage of all ski injuries—for example, because the number of other injury types has just decreased more.
19.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
It fails to █████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████
The argument only uses these three types of injuries as examples, it never claims that they’re the only types of ski injuries.
b
It infers disparate ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██████
The argument is only concerned with one cause and one effect: the cause is improvements in ski equipment, and the effect is a lower number of ski injuries.
c
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████
The argument states that ski injuries have decreased by 50 percent over the past 20 years, regardless of the number of skiers. Also, the percentage statistics the argument cites are unaffected by the number of skiers.
d
It assumes that ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ███ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████████
The argument concludes that certain types of injuries have not decreased in number, and uses knee injuries as an example based on an increased percentage. This ignores the possibility that there are still fewer knee injuries, even though the percentage is higher.
e
It proceeds as ██████ █████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ████████
The argument never acts as though every category of injury could see a greater decrease than the overall decrease.