PT15.S3.Q19

PrepTest 15 - Section 3 - Question 19

Show analysis

Thomas: Conclusion The club president had no right to disallow Jeffrey’s vote. ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██████
███████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██ █ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████

Break Down Argument

This stimulus presents us with two arguments, but the question stem only asks about Thomas' argument. That means there's no need to analyze Althea's argument, which responds to Thomas. Althea's reply might still give us a hint, but our focus should be on Thomas' argument.

Thomas concludes that the club president was wrong to disallow Jeffrey's vote. Thomas offers a conditional chain as support: according to the club rules, only members in good standing can vote; all members who pay dues are members in good standing; and Jeffrey has paid his dues. If we diagram it out, the argument looks like this:

can vote → good standing
pays dues → good standing
pays duesJeffrey
good standingJeffrey (implied sub-conclusion)
______
can voteJeffrey

Objective: Identify a Flaw

Looking at the diagram, it should be pretty straightforward to spot the issue: Thomas treats being in good standing as a sufficient condition to vote, when it's actually a necessary condition. This is the same flaw that Althea refers to in her rebuttal, although she does so indirectly. Going into the answer choices, we need to find the one that refers to Thomas' sufficient-necessary confusion.

User Avatar Analysis by AlexandraNash
Show answer
19.

The reasoning in Thomas’ argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████

a

fails to take ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████████

b

offers evidence that █████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████████

c

wrongly assumes that ██ █ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████

d

does not specify ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████

e

overlooks the possibility ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████

Confirm action

Are you sure?