PT158.S4.Q26

PrepTest 158 - Section 4 - Question 26

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Support Every Labrador retriever in my neighborhood is a well-behaved dog. ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████████ ████ █████████

Practical Template

The stimulus supports a causal conclusion – actually, two causal conclusions – with correlative premises. That’s all you need – all the wrong answers either lack two causal conclusions or introduce new dynamics not present in the stimulus.

You should absolutely aspire to identify the correlation / causation dynamic up front. And while almost all Parallel questions demand a detailed model of the stimulus’ structure, Parallel Flaw questions often don’t – if you’ve identified a common flaw, that justifies a shallow dip into the answer choices. That will often suffice to separate the right answer from the wrong ones, as it does here.

Full Structure And Flaws

Here’s the argument’s full structure:

P1: All the Labs [in my neighborhood] are Well-behaved.
P2: Well-behaved pets are all Trained.
________
C1: Training causes Well-behaved.
C2: Genetics don’t cause Well-behaved.

Notably, this stimulus does not confuse sufficiency with necessity. Easy mistake to make because the conclusion seems to apply premise 2 backward. But the conclusion isn't a conditional claim at all. It's merely a causal claim that training is the cause of good behavior in the Labrador retrievers that we observed to have good behavior.

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26.

The flawed reasoning in which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████

a

All the students ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ██████

b

Whenever it snows █████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ███ █████████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██████

c

Every musician I ████ ██ █ ████ ███████ █████ █████████████ █ ████ ██ █ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██ █ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████████

d

All of the ████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ █ ████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████

e

All of the ████████ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ████████ █████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████

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