Self-study
Conclusion A good way to get over one's fear of an activity one finds terrifying is to do it repeatedly. ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that a good way to get over one’s fear of an activity is to do that activity repeatedly. This is based on the fact that over half of people who have parachuted only once report being frightened by parachuting, but less than 1 percent of those who have parachute ten times or more report being frightened of it.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the reason so few people who parachute ten times or more report being frightened by parachuting is that repeated parachuting has reduced their fear. This overlooks the possibility that those people weren’t afraid to begin with. Their lack of fear might be what causes them to parachute many times.
21.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
takes for granted ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ████
The argument doesn’t concern a “greater number of dangerous activities.” It’s about one’s fear of one activity and whether doing that one activity more can reduce one’s fear of that activity.
b
neglects to consider █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████
The statistic already shows that people who parachute many times report being less frightened than people who parachute only once. The flaw concerns the author’s causal assumption, not the lack of info about people who parachuted between one and ten times.
c
takes for granted ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ██
The argument doesn’t concern people’s awareness of how frightening something is. It’s about whether people are frightened of an activity and whether doing that activity more reduces fear. Knowledge of one’s level of fear is a separate issue.
d
fails to take ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ████
Whether people would be better off is irrelevant. The argument concerns whether doing an activity more reduces fear of that activity. The author did not conclude that doing a feared activity is a good idea or that it should be done.
e
overlooks the possibility ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████
This possibility, if true, presents an alternate explanation for the statistics cited. Perhaps people’s lack of fear is what allowed them to parachute ten times. This undermines the author’s hypothesis, which is that parachuting ten times is what reduced their fear.