Self-study
Advertisement: Support Honey Oat Puffs cereal is made with whole-grain oats. ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that most people would have healthier diets if they ate Honey Oat Puffs for breakfast. This is based on the fact that Honey Oat Puffs contain whole-grain oats, and health experts agree that whole-grain oats are healthier than most of the foods in a typical diet.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that because part of Honey Oat Puffs is healthier than what’s in a typical diet (whole-grain oats), that the whole cereal is healthier than what’s in a typical diet. This overlooks the possibility that Honey Oat Puffs contains other things (such as sugar, perhaps), that would make the cereal overall less healthy, even if the oats are healthy.
7.
The reasoning in the advertisement's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
infers that a ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████████
The author infers that Honey Oat Puffs are healthier than foods in a typical diet simply because one ingredient — whole-grain oats — has that property. This overlooks the possibility that the cereal has other ingredients that make it less healthy than foods in a typical diet.
b
treats a property ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ █ ████ █████████ ██ █ ████████ ████ █ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████████
There is no property that is sufficient to make a food healthful. Although whole-grain oats are healthful, they are not enough to guarantee that Honey Oat Puffs are healthful.
c
confuses two distinct ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████
“Healthful” does not take on two different meanings in this argument. The word means tending to promote health.
d
concludes that a ████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██████
The premises do not assert that Honey Oat Puffs tends to be part of the diets of healthy people. They also do not assert that whole-grain oats tend to be part of the diets of healthy people.
e
contains a premise ████ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████
(E) describes circular reasoning. The conclusion, which asserts that Honey Oat Puffs are healthful, is not restated in the premises. The premises concern whole-grain oats being healthful and Honey Oat Puffs containing whole-grain oats.