PT15.S3.Q13

PrepTest 15 - Section 3 - Question 13

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Support Reptiles are air-breathing vertebrates with completely ossified skeletons; so Conclusion alligators must be air-breathing vertebrates with completely ossified skeletons.

Argument Summary

The stimulus starts with a general claim: reptiles are air-breathing vertebrates with completely ossified skeletons. From this premise, it concludes that alligators must therefore be air-breathing vertebrates with completely ossified skeletons.

Analysis of Argument Structure

Let's break down the structure of this argument. The premise is a definition, telling us that all reptiles fulfill certain criteria: being air-breathing vertebrates with ossified skeletons. Let's call all those characteristics together "X":

reptile → X

The second statement concludes that alligators must be X:

alligator → X

For this to be a valid conclusion, the argument must assume that all alligators are reptiles:

alligator → reptile

In other words, the structure we want will likely look something like this:

A → C (all A have some trait C)

Therefore, B → C

The key to the logic here will be the unstated assumption that B is a subgroup or subcategory of A: in other words, that all B are A (B → A).

User Avatar Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles
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13.

In terms of its logical █████████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ █████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

a

Green plants take ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ████

b

Some red butterflies ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███

c

Knowledge about the █████████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ █ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ █████████ █████ ███ █████████ ██████

d

Dierdre has seen █████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ █ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████

e

Skiers run a ████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ █ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████

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