PT110.S2.Q24

PrepTest 110 - Section 2 - Question 24

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Lawyer: The defendant wanted to clear the snow off his car and in doing so knocked snow on the sidewalk. ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████

Method of Reasoning

The lawyer establishes the criteria for proving that an action was done maliciously (that it was done with the intention to cause harm) and concludes that, since the defendant intentionally removed snow from his car onto the sidewalk and that snow later caused harm to someone, the defendant acted maliciously.

Identify and Describe Flaw

The argument is flawed because it fails to distinguish between an action that is performed with the intention of producing an effect and an intentional action that inadvertently produces an effect. In order to call the defendant’s actions malicious, the lawyer would need to establish that the defendant intended to cause the plaintiff to fall and break her hip. Since the lawyer admits that the defendant didn’t know that his actions would cause harm, the conclusion that he acted maliciously is unsupported.

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24.

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

a

Alice asked her ██████ ██ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ████████

b

Bruce wanted to ███ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████

c

Cheryl denigrated the █████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███████

d

Deon had lunch ████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████

e

Edwina bought a ███ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ █ ██████ ████

Confirm action

Are you sure?