Self-paced
Political advertisement: Sherwood campaigns as an opponent of higher taxes. ███ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ █████████ █████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author’s implicit conclusion is that Sherwood is not an opponent of higher taxes. This is based on the fact that over the last 10 years, Sherwood has served on the city council, and the council has consistently increased taxes every year.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that Sherwood isn’t an opponent of higher taxes because the council she served on voted for more taxes. This overlooks the possibility that Sherwood is an opponent of higher taxes, voted against higher taxes, but was simply outvoted by others on the council who favored more taxes.
7.
The argument in the political █████████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
bases a crucial ██████████████ ██ █ ████ ███████ ██████
The argument doesn’t generalize based on a sample. The author points to the council’s votes concerning taxes as evidence of Sherwood’s mindset. The claim that Sherwood isn’t opposed to higher taxes isn’t a generalization.
b
fails to consider ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███████████
It’s not clear that anything was “unavoidable.” So the possibility (B) points out has no impact on the argument’s reasoning.
c
mistakes something that ██ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ █ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████
The argument isn’t based on conditional reasoning, so there’s no confusion of sufficient and necessary conditions.
d
makes a personal ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ █ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████ ████
(D) describes an argument in which the author comments on Sherwood’s background/character/motives as a way to counter Sherwood’s view. This doesn’t happen. The author doesn’t try to say that taxes are good/bad because of a personal attack on Sherwood.
e
takes for granted ████ █ ██████████████ ██ █ █████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████
The author assumes that a feature of a group (the city council favors higher taxes) is shared by an individual member of that group (Sherwood). This is flawed because Sherwood might be opposed to higher taxes even if the council as a whole, as shown through votes, isn’t.