Self-study
Advertisement: Conclusion Northwoods Maple Syrup, made the old-fashioned way, is simply tops for taste. ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ███████ █ ███ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ █ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████
Objective: Identify a Potential Issue
The advertisement concludes that Northwoods maple syrup is "simply tops for taste." How do we know? Because in a recent survey, 70% of shoppers who had any preference for a certain maple syrup brand preferred Northwoods.
There are a couple of potential issues with this argument. One is that the quality of the survey could be poor, leading us to question the reliability of its results. For example, if the survey was conducted in a store that only carried Northwoods maple syrup, we could question how much opportunity shoppers actually had to compare it with other brands. Another issue is that the advertisement assumes taste is the reason shoppers like Northwoods. But there could be another reason it's customers' favorite, which would undermine the advertisement.
5.
Of the following, which one ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███████████
a
The proportion of ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████
The survey only accounts for shoppers who did express a preference; if that was a large majority of shoppers, that's actually good for the argument. (A) would make the survey's sample more representative, rather than undermining anything.
b
Other brands of █████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ █████████████ ████
The advertisement just mentions that Northwoods is made the old-fashioned way as context. Because this isn't a load-bearing part of the argument, it doesn't matter if other syrups are made the same way.
c
No market survey ██████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████████
When we're thinking about a survey, we care if it's representative—if its results reflect the preferences of shoppers overall. But covering only a sizable minority of shoppers doesn't make a survey unrepresentative unless the sample is unrepresentative, which (C) doesn't tell us. So this isn't a reliability concern by itself.
This idea of representativeness is part of what defines the ideal experiment. No experiment or survey could really expect to cover all, or even a majority of the population. It's important that the sample is large enough to be representative, but that doesn't require more than a sizable minority.
d
The preference for ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██ ██ █████████████ ███ ██████
(D) identifies the advertisement's assumption that shoppers' preference for Northwoods is attributable to its flavor. But if there's another reason shoppers prefer Northwoods, the survey no longer supports the conclusion that Northwoods has a great taste.
e
Shoppers who buy █████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ██████
The argument is constrained to talking about maple syrup, so what other syrups shoppers might buy doesn't make any difference to the argument.