Self-study
Support A recent poll of a large number of households found that 47 percent of those with a cat had at least one person with a university degree, while Support 38 percent of households with a dog had at least one person with a university degree. ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████████ ████ █ ███ ████ ███ ████ █ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that people who have university degrees are more likely to live in a household with a cat than a household with a dog. This is based on the following poll results:
47% of households with a cat had at least one person with a university degree.
38% of households with a dog had at least one person with a university degree.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that the number of houses with dogs is significantly higher than the number of houses with cats, such that 38% of dog-houses might be a greater number than 47% of cat-houses. And if this is the case, a person with a university degree might be more likely to be part of a dog-house than a cat-house.
24.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
a
ignores the possibility ████ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ █ ███ ███ █ ███
This possibility doesn’t hurt the argument, because we have statistics about households with cats and households with dogs. Households that have both would simply be counted as both a household with a cat and a household with a dog. These households are not excluded.
b
takes for granted ████ █████ ███ ███ █████████████ ████ ██████████ ████ █ ███ ████ ████ ████ █ ███
This describes an assumption of the argument, because if there were significantly more households with a dog than ones with a cat, that opens the possibility 38% of the dog-houses is a greater number than 47% of the cat-houses.
c
fails to consider ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ █ ██████████ ██████
The argument concerns only people who have university degrees. What proportion have houses with at least one person without a university degree has no bearing on the argument.
d
fails to consider ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ████ █ ███ ██ ███
The argument concerns the likelihood that someone with a university degree is to live in a household with a cat vs. a household with a dog. Who makes decisions on pets in these households has no bearing on the argument.
e
ignores the possibility ████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ █████ ████████ █████████
The argument does not assert any causal relationship. The author doesn’t say that having a degree causes one to get a cat or a dog or vice versa. So the possibilty that things can be correlated without being causally connected has no impact on the argument.