Self-study
Roxanne promised Luke that she would finish their report while he was on vacation; however, the deadline for that report was postponed. ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████
Method of Reasoning
This question wants us to complete the analogy. We’re given an analogous argument where it’s okay to break a promise to a friend if they no longer expect you to keep it. We want to match this same reasoning in the answer choices by showing that it’s okay for Roxanne to break her promise to finish the report if Luke no longer expects her to keep it.
16.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████
a
if Roxanne believes ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██
Mismatched conclusion. (A) tells us that if Luke doesn’t expect Roxanne to finish the report, then it would be wrong for her to finish it. We want an answer choice that tells us it’s okay for her not to finish it, so (A) doesn’t match.
b
it would not ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ █████████
Mismatched premises and conclusion. (B) tells us it’s okay for Roxanne to finish the report if Luke didn’t expect the deadline to be changed. We want an answer choice that tells us it’s okay for Roxanne not to finish the report if Luke no longer expects her to, so (B) doesn’t match.
c
if Luke would ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██
Mismatched premises and conclusion. (C) tells us it’s wrong for Roxanne to finish the report if Luke does expect her to finish it. We want an answer choice that tells us it’s okay for her not to finish the report if Luke doesn’t expect her to finish, so (C) is backwards.
d
if Luke would ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██
(D) tells us it’s okay for Roxanne to break her promise if Luke doesn’t expect her to keep it. The analogy given in the stimulus also features a situation where it’s okay to break a promise if someone no longer expects you to keep it, so (D) matches.
e
Luke would not ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██
Mismatched premises. (E) only gives us two facts: Luke doesn’t expect Roxanne to keep her promise, and it would be wrong if she did. We want an answer choice that tells us it’s okay for Roxanne to break her promise if Luke doesn’t expect her to keep it, so (E) doesn’t match.