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Explanations

PT102.S4.Q18

SECTION 1 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

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

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

PASSAGE 4
Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

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

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 · 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

PrepTest 102 - Section 4 - Question 18

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Obviously, Conclusion we cannot in any real sense mistreat plants. ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████

Summary

It’s impossible to mistreat plants. Why? To feel pain, you need a nervous system. (Contrapositive: no nervous system, no pain.) And plants don’t have a nervous system.

Missing Connection

The conclusion is about mistreatment, but the premises say nothing about mistreatment.

How to get from the premises to the conclusion? The first premise (plants have no nervous system) triggers the contrapositive of the second premise (to feel pain, you need a nervous system). So we can infer that plants can’t feel pain. That’s as far as the premises get us.

We can make the argument valid if we then assume that when something can’t feel pain, it can’t be mistreated. (Contrapositive: for something to be mistreated, it must be able to feel pain.)

Analysis by AlbertGauthier

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18.

The conclusion above follows logically ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████

Any organism that ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████

We can infer from the premises that plants can’t experience pain, so plants fail the sufficient condition here. This assumption doesn’t get us anywhere. However, if the sufficient and necessary conditions here were swapped, this would be the right answer.

Only organisms that ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████

This just restates the premise that having a nervous system is necessary to feel pain. It doesn’t explain what, if anything, nervous systems and pain have to do with mistreatment.

Any organism that ███ █ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████

This says nothing about mistreatment, so it can’t be right. The conclusion is all about mistreatment, yet the premises never even raise the subject of mistreatment. (C) fails to explain what, if anything, nervous systems and pain have to do with mistreatment.

Only organisms that ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████

Contrapositive: if an organism can’t experience pain, it can’t be mistreated. And we can infer from the premises that plants can’t experience pain. So (D) guarantees the argument’s conclusion: plants can’t be mistreated.

Any organism that ███ █ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████████

The premises state that plants don’t have a nervous system, so plants fail the sufficient condition here. This assumption doesn’t get us anywhere.

Difficulty

Question

88% of people who answer get this correct

This is a moderately difficult question.

CURVE

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

25% 141

149

75% 156

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Sufficient assumption

Stems that ask us to provide an additional piece of information that, if true, would make the argument in the stimulus completely valid.

Stimulus Tags

Conditional reasoning

Stimuli that feature conditional and set logic (e.g. A → B, A is true, therefore B is true).

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

157

159

155

88%

167

157

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