Self-study
Harrold Foods is attempting to dominate the soft-drink market by promoting "Hero," its most popular carbonated drink product, with a costly new advertising campaign. ███ ██████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Harrold Foods already dominates the market and would only need to maintain current market share to continue to be dominant. This is because consumers surveyed believe that Harrold's drink 'Hero' dominates the market, and any product with over 50% of market sales is considered dominant.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The argument treats consumer opinion as fact. It relies on a survey showing that many people believe Harrold Foods’s product is dominant, but fails to establish that the product actually holds a majority of market sales. Consumer opinion about whether a product is dominant doesn't reveal the product's sales numbers.
13.
The argument commits which one ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
a
failing to exclude ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████████
This describes an argument mistaking a cause for an effect, but the stimulus never mentions any cause-and-effect relationship.
b
mistaking a condition ████████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ █ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████
The only sufficient condition in this argument is “any product with more than 50 percent of the sales in a market... is dominant...”, but the argument doesn’t mistake this for a necessary condition.
c
treating the failure ██ █████████ ████ █ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █ █████████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████
The argument doesn’t cite a lack of disproof—it cites survey data and treats people’s beliefs as if they’re facts.
d
taking evidence that █ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████
This describes how the argument assumes that, just because most people in a survey believe a product is dominant, the product is actually dominant.
e
describing survey results ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████
The argument cites current market opinion to make the claim that Harrold Foods is now dominant. It never presumes that anyone will still hold that opinion in the future. In addition, the conclusion asserts that Harrold Foods would only need to maintain current market share in the future to continue dominating the market. This doesn't mean that the author thinks Harrold Foods will continue to be dominant in the future or that it will continue to maintain current market share.