PT124.S2.Q20

PrepTest 124 - Section 2 - Question 20

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Support On some hot days the smog in Hillview reaches unsafe levels, and Support on some hot days the wind blows into Hillview from the east. ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████ ███████

Argument Summary

The author observes two things about hot days in Hillview. First, on some hot days, the smog reaches unsafe levels. Second, on some hot days, the wind blows in from the east. From these two premises, the author concludes that on some days when the wind blows in from the east, the smog reaches unsafe levels.

In other words, the author notices that "hot days" overlap with both "unsafe smog days" and "east wind days," and concludes that "unsafe smog days" and "east wind days" must also overlap with each other.

The Flaw

The author assumes that some of the hot days with unsafe smog are the same hot days with east wind. But that doesn't have to be true. The hot days with unsafe smog could be completely different days from the hot days with east wind.

Here's what might be true:

hot days unsafe smog east wind overlap overlap smog and wind: no overlap

Notice that the premises are still satisfied: some hot days have unsafe smog (left overlap), and some hot days have east wind (right overlap). But the unsafe smog days and east wind days are on completely different hot days. So the conclusion that some east wind days have unsafe smog doesn't logically follow.

Here's the abstract version of this flaw: Even if “Some A are B” and “Some A are C,” we cannot conclude “Some B are C.” This is because B and C might not overlap within A.

User Avatar Analysis by Kevin_Lin
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20.

The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████

a

mistakes a condition ████ █████████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ █ █████████ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████

b

fails to recognize ████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ █████

c

uses the key ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████

d

contains a premise ████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████

e

infers a particular ██████ ████████ ████ █ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ██ █████ ████

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