PT8.S2.Q14

PrepTest 8 - Section 2 - Question 14

Want a diagram-free walkthrough?

Hide analysis

Support When the economy is in a recession, overall demand for goods and services is low. ██ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██ █ ██████████

Chaining Conditionals

This stimulus chains two conditional statements together, yielding a valid inference. That inference is expressed in the contrapositive. Here’s a formal logic translation of the argument:

P1: Recession → Demand↓
P2: ↓Demand → Interest↓
________
C: Recession → Interest↓
(CP: /Interest↓ → /Recession)
Show answer
14.

The reasoning in which one ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████

a

If the restaurant ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████

(A) is wrong because its second premise simply reverses its first premise rather than creating a conditional chain linking to a new concept. Whereas the stimulus goes from recession to demand to interest, (A) goes from restaurant to parking and then back to restaurant.

P1: Restaurant → Parking
P2: Parking → Restaurant
________
C: /Parking → /Restaurant

(A)’s conclusion is just the contrapositive of premise 1.

5%
b

If the fish ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ██████

This mirrors the stimulus’ conditional chain structure, and also presents the conclusion in the contrapositive.

Stimulus
P1: Recession → Demand↓
P2: ↓Demand → Interest↓
________
C: Recession → Interest↓
(CP: /Interest↓ → /Recession)
(B)
P1: Ready → Cooked
P2: Cooked → White
________
C: Ready → White
(CP: /White → /Ready)
90%
c

If pterodactyls flew ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████████████ ██ ██ ████ ████ █████████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████

Practically, you should eliminate (C) because you notice it only has two claims to the stimulus’ three.

(C) presents a premise (if pterodactyls flapped, they were warm-blooded), then a conclusion that’s simply the contrapositive of that premise with slightly different wording (if they were cold-blooded, they must have glided). Translated into formal logic, that’s:

P1: Flap → Warm
________
P2: /Warm → /Flap

“If they flew at all” adds a weird complication we fortunately don’t need to get into, because it’s enough to note that the stimulus doesn’t feature a similar clause.

1%
d

If you want ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████

(D) is most noticeably wrong because the conclusion doesn't contain a contrapositive.

That’s the main thing, but there’s also a minor distinction between not having enough material to make the top and not being able to make the top. Maybe you can get supplemental material from elsewhere.

0%
e

If economic forecasters ███ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ████ ██████

(E)’s premises do form a conditional chain, but its conclusion confuses necessity for sufficiency, resulting in a claim that’s reversed compared to the valid conclusion.

P1: Forecasters → Inflation
P2: Inflation → Lose
________
(Valid C: Forecasters → Lose)
Actual C: Lose → Forecasters
4%

Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.

It takes about five minutes.

Take the free diagnostic

Confirm action

Are you sure?