Self-study
Advertisement: Support Each of the Economic Merit Prize winners from the past 25 years is covered by the Acme retirement plan. █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ █ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the Acme retirement plan is probably a good plan for anyone with retirement needs similar to the Economic Merit Prize winners. This is based on the fact that each of the winners from the past 25 years is covered by the Acme retirement plan. The author interprets this fact as showing that the prize-winners have recognized that the plan is a good one for them.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the reason the winners have the Acme plan is that they believe the plan is a good one for them. This overlooks the possibility that they have the plan for some other reason unrelated to their perception of the plan’s quality. The author also assumes that if the winners believe the Acme plan is good for them, then that constitutes evidence that the plan actually is good for people with similar retirement needs.
20.
The advertisement's argumentation is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████
This possibility does not undermine the argument because prize-winners with other plans might simply have different retirement needs from the prize-winners the author cites to. Also, the author does not assert that the Acme plan is the best, or that it is the only good plan.
b
It fails to ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ █ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████████
This possibility does not undermine the argument because the author does not assume that the Acme plan is the best. He states only that the prize-winners recognize that the Acme plan is “probably a good plan” for people with similar needs. But there can be other good plans, too.
c
It appeals to ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████████
The main conclusion is that the Acme plan is probably a good plan for anyone with retirement needs similar to those of the prize-winners. The author does not state or assume that the prize-winners endorse that specific conclusion. The author does assume that the prize-winners think the Acme plan is good for them. But that's not the same as assuming the prize-winners think the Acme plan is good for other people with similar needs.
d
It takes for ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
The author assumes that the reason some prize-winners have the Acme plan is that they perceive it to be good for them. This requires that the plan was not forced upon them. If it was, then the fact some of them have the Acme plan does not tell us about their perception of it.
e
It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ██████
The author’s conclusion is limited to “anyone with retirement needs similar to [the prize-winners’].” This acknowledges that some people might not have identical retirement needs.