Self-study
Pundit: The only airline providing service for our town announced that because the service is unprofitable it will discontinue this service next year. ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ███████████████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument
The pundit states that the people of his town should not follow the recommendation of their town council to increase their usage of their local airline. He supports his statement by citing an example of the town council’s behavior, where they opted to drive to an event instead of fly.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The pundit does not explain why the town council drove to the event instead of flying. Maybe there was no airport to land at in their destination, or a council member could not fly for medical or personal reasons. Without knowing why the council members chose to drive instead of flying, the pundit’s argument rests on the sentiment that the credibility of the council’s recommendations depends on whether or not the council members follow the recommendations themselves, which would not be a good reason to discredit the council.
8.
The pundit's reasoning is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████
a
increasing the number ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ████████
The pundit’s argument is not concerned with the airline’s path to profitability; instead, he argues that a recommendation not adhered to by the recommenders is not worth following.
b
suspending service and ██████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ███████
The stimulus did not explain the airline's options regarding whether or not to continue service—all we know is that they’ve decided to suspend service in the future and that the town council wants to influence them to change their minds.
c
the town officials ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ █████
This has nothing to do with how the council’s actions contradicted their recommendation to the townspeople. The pundit’s argument is not focused on the cost of the trip, the source of the funding, or the difference in cost between driving vs. flying.
d
ground transportation is ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████████
The pundit is not concerned with the costs of the trip and the differences in cost between driving and flying. Instead, he is focused on how the town council’s actions do not line with their recommendations.
e
if the town █████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████████
The pundit’s problem with the recommendation is that the town council’s actions contradicted it, and this statement is the support for their conclusion. However, without knowing why the town council chose to drive to the event instead of fly, we cannot accept this reasoning.