PT102.S3.Q22

PrepTest 102 - Section 3 - Question 22

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Support Congenial guests and a plentiful supply of good things to eat and drink will ensure a successful dinner party. █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ █ ████████

Method of Reasoning

This argument starts by providing a general conditional rule: if there are congenial guests and a plentiful supply of good things to eat and drink, a successful dinner party is ensured. In other words, if there are both congenial guests and an abundant supply of good food and drink, that is a sufficient condition for a successful dinner party.

The stimulus then tries to apply that rule to a specific case: since Sylvia has plentiful food and drink and has invited congenial guests, her dinner party will be a success. In other words, the argument tries to show that Sylvia has satisfied the sufficient condition, and thus that the necessary condition — a successful dinner party — will follow.

Identify and Describe Flaw

The argument gives us a conditional rule with a two-part sufficient condition. It then tries to apply that rule to a specific case, which doesn't actually meet both parts of the sufficient condition. While we know for sure that Sylvia has congenial guests, we only know that she has plentiful food and drink — we don't know that she has plentiful good food and drink.

The difference depends on the one adjective "good", but because we don't know if Sylvia's food and drink is good or not, we can only say for sure that she satisfies one part of the sufficient condition: having congenial guests. Since we can't say that Sylvia's situation fulfills the sufficient condition of the conditional rule, we can't conclude that the necessary condition will follow — i.e. that her dinner party will be successful.

Since this is a Parallel Flaw question, it will be useful to describe the flawed pattern of reasoning in more general terms. At the highest level, we're looking for an answer choice that assumes a specific case meets the sufficient condition of a rule, when it actually doesn't. More specifically, we're likely looking for an answer choice that provides a conditional rule with a multi-part sufficient condition, then concludes that a certain case will follow that rule when it only meets part of the sufficient condition.

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22.

The pattern of flawed reasoning █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

a

The right ingredients, ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ █ ██████████ █████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██ █ ████████ █████

b

If corn is █████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███

c

Making pie dough █████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █ █████ ██████

d

If soup is ████ ████ █ █████████████ ████ █████ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███████

e

Fresh greens, carefully ██████ ███ ██████ ████ █ █████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █ ██████████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████████ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █ ██████████ ████

Confirm action

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