Self-study
Support City dog licensing records show that more cocker spaniels are registered to addresses in the Flynn Heights neighborhood than to addresses in all other neighborhoods combined. ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████ █████ █ █████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author's conclusion is in the second sentence: any stray cocker spaniel found near Flynn Heights likely belongs to someone who lives in Flynn Heights. The evidence for this claim is that city licensing records show that Flynn Heights has the most cocker spaniels registered of any neighborhood in the city, more than all the other neighborhoods combined.
Notable Assumptions
The only evidence provided for this argument is the city licensing records. To get to its conclusion, the argument assumes that the city licensing records are accurate. If the licensing records for some reason didn't accurately reflect the number of cocker spaniels living in Flynn Heights versus other neighborhoods, we couldn't be confident in the likelihood of a stray cocker spaniel near Flynn Heights necessarily belonging to a Flynn Heights resident.
14.
Which one of the following █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████
a
whether cocker spaniels ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██████
The argument isn't about whether cocker spaniels tend to stray more than other dogs. Regardless of whether they stray more or less, if Flynn Heights actually owns more cocker spaniels than all the other neighborhoods of the city, there is a high likelihood that a stray cocker spaniel found near Flynn Heights would belong to a Flynn Heights resident. This answer choice is irrelevant.
b
whether there are ████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███
We don’t care about other dog breeds registered within Flynn Heights. Even if residents of Flynn Heights simply had a lot of dogs, generally, as long as they still had more cocker spaniels than the rest of the city, the conclusion of the argument would still follow.
c
whether the city's ██████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████
The frequency of finding strays near Flynn Heights isn't relevant. Regardless of how often or rarely strays are found there, we just want to know the likelihood that, once a stray is found there, and it is a cocker spaniel, it belongs to someone in Flynn Heights.
d
whether the number ██ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████
Irrelevant. The argument is focused on cocker spaniels alone. Flynn Heights could still have more cocker spaniels than all other neighborhoods combined, regardless of however many or few other pets lived in Flynn Heights. So this doesn't affect the argument.
e
whether residents of █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ █████████████ ███
This is crucial to evaluating the argument. The argument assumes that because the licensing records show more cocker spaniels registered to Flynn Heights than all other neighborhoods combined, Flynn Heights actually has more cocker spaniels than other neighborhoods. But if Flynn Heights residents are just more likely to license their dogs, then it's possible other neighborhoods have just as many cocker spaniels as Flynn Heights, and just haven't licensed them. This would call the conclusion of the argument into doubt.