Self-study
Support Polling data reveal that an overwhelming majority of nine-year-olds can correctly identify the logos of major cigarette brands. ████████ ██ █████ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████
Method of Reasoning
The vast majority of nine-year-olds can correctly identify the logos of major cigarette brands, yet amongst the nine-year-olds who can correctly identify the logos of major cigarette brands, less than 1 percent smoke. It follows that there’s little to no connection between smoking and being able to recognize cigarette brands.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The argument commits two flaws. First, the argument uses an unrepresentative sample. Assumedly, very few nine-year-olds have direct access to cigarettes or smoke, so it’s misleading to cite them in an argument about smoking.
Second, the argument is flawed because it draws a conclusion based on data that wasn’t given long enough to develop. The argument concludes that since so many nine-year-olds can correctly identify cigarette brand logos, but less than 1 percent smoke, there’s little or no correlation between identifying cigarette brand logos and smoking. However, it’s to be expected that nine-year-olds don’t smoke. If the nine-year-olds were polled again later in life, it may be discovered that those who could identify cigarette brand logos at 9 are more likely to smoke.
20.
Which one of the following ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████
a
The concern about ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █ ███████████ ███████████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
(A) is concerned with the long-term effect of small quantities of mercury on dolphins, yet the dolphins that were exposed to mercury were only observed for three months. If they’d been observed longer, the mercury may have affected the dolphins. Like the stimulus, (A) commits the flaw of drawing a conclusion based on data that wasn’t given long enough to develop.
b
Many ten-year-olds dream ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ █ ██████ ███████████ ███████
No flaw. Parents discouraging their children from pursuing a career in acting could greatly lower the number of children who pursue that career path.
c
Most dentists recommend █████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████
Wrong flaw. Just because most dentists recommend fluoride use and few recommend totally forgoing candy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that using fluoride is an outright better method for preventing cavities than avoiding sweets. However, (C) doesn’t commit the flaws the stimulus commits, which are using an unrepresentative sample and citing data that wasn’t given long enough to develop.
d
A large percentage ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ██ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████
Wrong flaw. (D) says that men who exercise moderately throughout their lives don’t have a longer average life span than those who get little or no exercise, then concludes that exercise and good health aren’t correlated. However, someone’s the number of years someone lives doesn’t necessarily indicate how good their health was. (D) misleadingly conflates the ideas of “life span” and “health.” However, (D) doesn’t commit the flaws from the stimulus, which are using an unrepresentative sample and citing data that wasn’t given long enough to develop.
e
Most people cannot ████ █████ ███████████ ████████████████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████
No flaw. If having command of current political issues is more important than being able to name your representative, then what really matters is whether people understand current political issues, not whether they can recite their representatives.