Self-study
Children fall into three groups—nontasters, regular tasters, and supertasters—depending on how strongly they experience tastes. ████████████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ █ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that supertasters find sharp cheddar bitter, but nontasters don’t. The reasoning is that, if someone finds food bitter, he will dislike it. And supertasters dislike sharp cheddar (compared to mild), but nontasters don’t.
Missing Connection
The author commits the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. He establishes that, if you find something bitter, you will dislike it. But it doesn’t follow that, if you dislike something, you must find it bitter. To justify his argument, the author would have to assume that only a difference in bitterness could explain preferring one cheese to another.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████
a
Supertasters like mild ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████
This is irrelevant and doesn’t justify the author’s argument. First, this doesn’t bridge the gap between preference and bitterness that we identified. Second, this is comparing supertasters and regular tasters, when we need to compare them to nontasters.
b
The age of ███ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████████ █ ███████ ███████ ██ █ ████████████
Age is irrelevant: we don’t know if there’s a difference in age between the taster groups, and we still need an assumption bridging the gap between bitterness and preference.
c
The sweeter a ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███
The argument’s conclusion is about whether certain tasters find certain cheeses bitter, so sweetness is irrelevant. (Basic tastes, like sweet and bitter, are not mutually exclusive; foods like chocolate can be both sweet and bitter.)
d
Bitterness is the ████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████
Supertasters prefer mild to sharp cheddar. Nontasters have no preference. If bitterness is the only relevant factor, supertasters must perceive sharp cheddar as more bitter. And non-tasters must not perceive a difference.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or suggest an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
e
Nontasters tend to ████ █ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ████ █ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████████████
This doesn’t bridge the gap in the argument between cheese preference and alleged bitterness. Without a connection to bitterness, the variety of foods different kind of tasters like is irrelevant.