PT121.S1.Q17

SECTION 1 · 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 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12

PASSAGE 3
Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19

PASSAGE 4
Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 3 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12

PASSAGE 3
Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19

PASSAGE 4
Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

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 Question 26

PrepTest 121 - Section 1 - Question 17

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Support Some classes of animal are so successful that they spread into virtually every ecosystem, whereas others gradually recede until they inhabit only small niches in geographically isolated areas and thereby become threatened. ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██ █ ██████████ ████████

Summarize Argument

The author concludes that there are no endangered species of ants. Why? Because insects in general are so successful that they spread into virtually every ecosystem, and ants are the most successful insect.

Identify and Describe Flaw

This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing part v. whole. The author observes that the biological family of ants is successful, and concludes that every individual ant species must be successful.

But some qualities can be true of a whole without being true of every part, or vice versa. Ants in general could be very successful, but some species of ants could still be endangered.

Analysis by TheodoreMalter

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17.

The argument is flawed because ██ █████ ███ ███████ ████

the Arctic Circle ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████████ ████████ █████

The author doesn’t presume that either is isolated; they’re used to demonstrate wide geographic range (extreme north vs. extreme south).

because ants do ███ ███████ ████ █ █████ █████ ██ █ ██████████████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███████

The author says that insects are definitely not the kind of animals limited to small niches, so this can’t be the flaw.

the only way █ █████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ █████ █████████

This goes beyond what the argument states. The author says that two options for animal species are to go extinct or spread into virtually every ecosystem. He doesn’t indicate that those are the only two options.

what is true ██ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████

This describes the part-to-whole flaw, but this is the reverse of what the author does. Instead, he commits a whole-to-part flaw; he attributes a property true of a whole (ants as a family) to each of its individual parts (individual species of ants).

what is true ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████

This is the cookie-cutter whole-to-part flaw. The author takes for granted that a property true of a whole (ants as a whole are successful) is also true of the parts making up that whole (every individual ant species is successful). But that's flawed reasoning. Even if ants are generally successful, individual ant species could be endangered.

Difficulty

Question

76% of people who answer get this correct

This is a moderately difficult question.

CURVE

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

25% 144

152

75% 161

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.

Stimulus Tags

Part v. whole

Stimuli that assume characteristics that apply to something as a whole must also apply to all its parts, or vice versa.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

157

151

158

11%

158

76%

165

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