Self-study
Geneticist: Billions of dollars are spent each year on high-profile experiments that attempt to link particular human genes with particular personality traits. ██████ ████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ █ ███ █████████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████████████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████████████ ███████ ████████████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
Summary
A significant amount of money is spent on ambitious but unpractical scientific experiments, while more simple and practical experiments are underfunded. Therefore, funding for the ambitious projects should be decreased, and funding for other projects should be increased.
Notable Assumptions
The argument moves from a claim about the relative practicality of two types of projects, to a claim that funding should prioritize the more practical of the two. It doesn’t, however, explain why this is the case - why the smaller scale but more practical projects ought to be prioritized. To justify this, we need some principle that fills this gap, and tells us why the more practical projects deserve more funding and the less practical projects deserve less funding.
11.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████████
a
Experiments that have ███ █████████ ██ ████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ███████
Wrong trigger. Nothing in the argument discusses how much potential to help the whole human race either type of project has.
b
Experiments that focus ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████
The argument has already told us that the first set of projects is less practical than the second - what we need is something explaining why that matters.
c
Experiments that help ███████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████████ ███████████ ███████
Wrong trigger. While the argument tells us that the second experiment does make plants more nutritious, it does not tell us that the first only helps us prevent undesirable personality traits.
d
Experiments that have ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ █████████████
This explains why the relative practicality of each experiment matters and fills the gap between the premises and the conclusion. If the more practical projects are more worthwhile, that explains why we should provide them with more funding.
e
Experiments that get ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████████
Wrong trigger. While the argument notes that the first type are high-profile, the focus is not on either media attention or public support for the projects - it is instead on their practicality.