Self-study
Support Councillor Miller opposes all proposals to raise taxes. ██████████ ███████████ ████████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████
Method of Reasoning
The argument starts by describing one of Miller’s stances (opposes all proposals to raise taxes) and one of Philopoulos’ stances (supports increased funding for schools). It then moves to a conclusion that predicts whether Miller and Philopoulos will support a proposal (Callari’s proposal to increase school funding).
Identify and Describe Flaw
Just because we know Miller’s and Philopoulos’ general stances on an issue, we can’t always predict how they’ll react to particular proposals about that issue. While we can infer that Miller won’t support Callari’s proposal because of its required tax increase, we don’t know whether Philopoulos will support the proposal. Sure, Philopoulos supports increased funding for schools, but is Philopoulos willing to raise property taxes to secure that funding? We don’t know, so we can’t conclude that Philopoulos will support Callari’s proposal.
23.
Which one of the following ████████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Tara finds Ms. ███████ ███████ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████
Wrong flaw. This looks at the characteristics of two classes Tara is taking (one has papers but no exams and the other has exams but no papers), identifies which class Tara finds easier, and then tries to predict why Tara finds that class easier. The stimulus, meanwhile, erroneously tries to predict what Philopoulos will think about a proposal, rather than trying to identify why Philopoulos believes what he believes.
b
Jane refuses to ████ █████████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ █ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███████████
The argument starts by describing one of Jane’s stances (won’t live downtown) and one of Denise’s stances (wants to rent a penthouse apartment). It then moves to a conclusion that predicts whether Jane and Denise will decide to do something (rent one of the penthouse apartments in the Joliet Towers complex). This commits the same flaw as the stimulus of taking people’s general stances on an issue and trying to predict how they’ll react to particular decisions about that issue.
c
Mayor Watson promised █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████████████ █████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██████████████ ██████
No flaw. Mayor Watson promised to never support an increase in public transportation fares, and the new proposal to improve public transportation would double public transportation fares. Therefore, Mayor Watson will oppose the proposal.
d
Ed dislikes any ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ████ █████
No flaw. (D) says Ed dislikes all extremely sweet foods and Bill likes most extremely sweet foods. Therefore, Ed will dislike the extremely sweet brownies and Bill will probably like them.
e
In the past, ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████
Wrong flaw. (E) commits a flaw of extrapolation. (E) erroneously assumes that because citizens of Lake County have voted down all proposed property tax increases in the past, they’ll vote down the new proposed property tax increase. Just because the Lake County citizens have voted down past proposed increases, that doesn’t mean they’ll vote down the new one. However, the stimulus never tries to extrapolate existing trends.