PT23.S1.Q6

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24

SECTION 4 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18

PASSAGE 4
Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

PrepTest 23 - Section 1 - Question 6

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Although this bottle is labeled “vinegar,” no fizzing occurred when some of the liquid in it was added to powder from this box labeled “baking soda. ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████

Structure: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author observes that the liquid from a bottle labeled "vinegar", when added to powder from a box labeled "baking soda," did not cause any fizzing. He states that acidic liquids like vinegar will cause fizzing when added to baking soda. He concludes with a hypothesis for why no fizzing occurred: the bottle was mislabeled, i.e., the liquid inside it was not actually vinegar.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that it was necessarily the bottle that was mislabeled and didn't contain vinegar or an acidic liquid. But it's also possible that the box was mislabeled and didn't actually contain baking soda. Perhaps there are other potential explanations — for all we know, maybe the vinegar had lost some of its acidity — but the fact that the author overlooked an obvious alternative explanation, with just as much plausibility as his hypothesis, is a major flaw in this argument.

Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles

Show answer

A flaw in the reasoning ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████

ignores the possibility ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ███████

Incorrect. As the author states, it is acidic liquids generally — not vinegar alone — that cause fizzing when added to baking soda. So it's not possible that the bottle contained some other acidic liquid, since no fizzing occurred — unless, of course, the box was mislabeled, which is the real possibility the author overlooks.

fails to exclude ██ ███████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████

This is correct. The author's hypothesis jumps to the conclusion that it was the bottle that was mislabeled, when it seems just as likely for the box to have been mislabeled. The author fails to rule out this alternative explanation for why no fizzing occurred.

depends on the ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██████████

Irrelevant. "Fizz" may not sound like a formal scientific term, but as long as it refers to an effect that occurs when an acidic liquid is added to baking soda, and did not occur when the liquid from the bottle was added to the powder from the box, then that doesn't matter for this argument.

does not take ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████████████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██████████ ██████████

Incorrect. We don't know anything about the conditions where this experiment was conducted — for all we know, perhaps it was in a lab. And it's not clear that the author's purpose is to "definitively test" a "scientific principle." So this answer choice is irrelevant.

assumes that the ████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███████

Incorrect. The author never claims that the mislabeling of the bottle was someone's deliberate attempt to deceive. He doesn't say anything about anyone's motives.

Difficulty

Question

85% of people who answer get this correct

This is a slightly challenging question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 127

138

75% 150

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Flaw or descriptive weakening

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

150

85%

161

151

155

148

Question history

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