PT119.S3.Q4

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 Question 14 Question 15

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

PASSAGE 4
Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

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 Question 25 Question 26

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

PrepTest 119 - Section 3 - Question 4

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Detective: Bill has been accused of committing the burglary at the warehouse last night. ███ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ █████████

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position

The detective concludes that Bill did not commit the warehouse burglary last night. The basis for this conclusion is that no one saw Bill near the scene of the crime.

Identify and Describe Flaw

This is the cookie-cutter flaw of mistaking an unsupported conclusion for a false one. In this case, while we don’t have enough evidence to conclude that Bill was guilty, we can’t jump from that to definitively conclude that he was innocent.

For example, perhaps he is guilty, but no one saw him because he stealthily evaded detection after committing the crime.

Analysis by TheodoreMalter

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The reasoning in the detective's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████

treats evidence that ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ████████

The detective doesn’t do this—eyewitness evidence of the burglar’s identity is relevant.

merely attacks the █████████ ██ ██████ ████████

This is the cookie-cutter flaw of ad hominem (attacking the source); it isn’t applicable here because the detective doesn’t say anything about the accusers’ character.

fails to provide ███████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ████████

Since the conclusion is that Bill did not commit the burglary, failing to provide evidence that he did commit it could not possibly be the flaw in the argument.

treats a lack ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ████

This is the cookie-cutter flaw of mistaking a lack of support for a false conclusion. The detective notes that one form of evidence that would prove a theory (Bill’s guilt) true is missing. He erroneously concludes from that that the theory must be false.

fails to establish ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████

The detective doesn’t need to establish the true identity of the burglar to conclude that Bill isn’t the burglar.

Difficulty

Question

99% of people who answer get this correct

This is a low-difficulty question.

CURVE

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

25% 120

128

75% 135

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Flaw or descriptive weakening

Stems that ask us to articulate a flaw in the stimulus' argument, either in abstract terms or by pointing out a weakness.

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Stimulus Tags

Lack of support v. false conclusion

Stimuli that reason from premises saying "A has not been proven" to a conclusion saying "A must be false."

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Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

152

148

150

99%

164

169

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