PrepTest 12 - Section 1 - Question 20 | Explanation & Discussion

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Support The new perfume Aurora smells worse to Joan than any comparably priced perfume, and none of her friends likes the smell of Aurora as much as the smell of other perfumes. ████████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████

Argument Summary

The stimulus discusses a new perfume called "Aurora." We're told that Aurora smells worse to Joan than any other perfume in a comparable price range. We also know that none of Joan's friends like the smell of Aurora as much as they like the smell of other perfumes: i.e., all of them like Aurora less than other perfumes.

We're then given the argument's main point: Joan and her friends "must have a defect in their sense of smell." This conclusion is based on the premise that Professor Jameson, who is "one of the world’s foremost experts on the physiology of smell", likes the smell of Aurora more than that of any other perfume.

20.

The reasoning is flawed because ██

Question Type

Flaw or descriptive weakening

This is a very flawed argument. Just because Professor Jameson is an expert on the "physiology of smell" doesn't mean her own sense of smell is especially good. And even if it were, that wouldn't imply that Joan and her friends have a "defect" in their own senses of smell because they disagree with Professor Jameson on Aurora. There could be natural variations or other factors affecting one's preference in terms of smell that don't count as "defects."

calls into question ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████

Incorrect. The closest thing to an "opponent" in this argument is Joan and her friends. The author never accuses them of lying about their perfume preferences. In fact, by concluding that they must have a defective sense of smell, the author assumes that they are telling the truth about their preferences, but that their preferences are just based on a flawed sense of smell.

ignores the well-known ████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ ████

Incorrect. The author doesn't claim that anyone in the stimulus necessarily likes Aurora "very much." All the claims about "preferring" Aurora are comparative ones: preferring Aurora to other perfumes. The argument is that Joan and her friends are wrong not to prefer Aurora to other perfumes because Professor Jameson prefers Aurora to other perfumes — not that they are wrong to dislike Aurora because Professor Jameson "likes Aurora very much."

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

Incorrect. The author never assumes "widespread agreement" among experts in the field. The author's appeal to Jameson is based on her individual status as an expert, not on her being representative of all or many experts in the field.

makes an illegitimate ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ██████

Correct. Professor Jameson's expertise on the physiology of smell doesn't tell us anything about whether her own sense of smell and her own preferences among perfumes are somehow better than those of Joan and her friends. In other words, the author cites Professor Jameson as an authority, even though her expertise doesn't make her an authority in this scenario.

92%

misrepresents the position ███████ █████ ██ ██ ████████

Incorrect. Nothing in the stimulus suggests that the author is somehow "misrepresenting" Joan and her friends' position.

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