PrepTest 113 - Section 3 - Question 24 | Explanation & Discussion

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Town councillor: The only reason for the town to have ordinances restricting where skateboarding can be done would be to protect children from danger. █████████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████

Summarize Argument

The town councillor concludes that the town shouldn’t ban skateboarding in the park. This is because if children can't skateboard in the park, they will instead skateboard in the streets, which is more dangerous.

Notable Assumptions

The premise about skateboarding in the streets versus in the park tells us that in any given case, it is more dangerous to skateboard in the streets than in the park. But we don't know how many children will skateboard in the streets versus in the park. If only 10 children start skateboarding in the streets, versus 500 in the park, then the overall danger to children might not be greater. So the councillor assumes that enough children will start skateboarding in the streets that there will be greater danger posed to children in general compared to the current state of affairs. The councillor also assumes skateboarding in the streets will not also be prohibited.

24.

Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ████████████ █████████

Question Type

Strengthen

For principle-type questions, it helps to use our Sufficient Assumption methodology, which starts with identifying the premise → conclusion structure of the argument. The main premise of the argument is that if children can't skateboard in the park, they will skateboard in the street, which is more dangerous. The conclusion is that skateboarding in the park shouldn't be banned.

So the premise → conclusion gap we want to cross is basically:

alternative more dangerous → /ban original practice

A principle that could bridge this gap, then, could say something like "if banning a dangerous practice would lead to a more dangerous alternative, the original practice should not be banned."

Ordinances that restrict ███ ████████████ ██████████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ████ █ ██████ ██ █████████████

By this principle, we should pass the ordinance against skateboarding in the park, since that is a dangerous activity. This principle doesn't support the councillor's argument against the ban.

Since the town █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████

If anything, this principle suggests that the town should pass a ban on skateboarding in the park. It also gives us the criterion of being "unnecessarily dangerous", which doesn't clearly apply to the stimulus. This doesn't support the councillor's argument.

Since safety in █ ████████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████

The councillor doesn’t reject the ban based on reasoning about children's skill levels and the role of parental involvement, which aren't mentioned. The councillor rejects the ban because it would put children in more danger.

If recreational activities ██████████ █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ███████████

This would also suggest that the ban should be put in place, since skateboarding in the park poses a danger to the children participating. But the councillor is arguing against the ban.

Ordinances that seek ██ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████

This supports the argument. Since the ban on skateboarding in the park would lead to the greater danger of skateboarding in the street, the ban shouldn’t be enacted.

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PrepTest 113 - Section 3 - Question 24

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