PT125.S2.Q21

PrepTest 125 - Section 2 - Question 21

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Support Most people who become migraine sufferers as adults were prone to bouts of depression as children. █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ █ █████ ███ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██████████

Method of Reasoning

Most members of a first group (adults who suffer from migraines) are also members of a second group (people who were prone to depression as a child). Because of this, the author concludes that most members of the second group (people who were prone to depression as a child) are also members of the first group (adults who suffer from migraines).

Identify and Describe Flaw

The flaw here is a misunderstanding of the quantifier “most.” This quantifier isn’t bidirectional—you can’t assume that because most a first group falls into a second, most of the second group falls into the first! Maybe there are 100 people in the world who became adult migraine sufferers, and 99 of them were prone to depression as a child (satisfying our premise). There could be 5,000 people in the world who were prone to depression as a child, in which case most of them can’t have become adult migraine sufferers, because there are only 100 adult migraine sufferers total!

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21.

The flawed pattern of reasoning ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

a

Most good-tempered dogs ████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ █ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █ █████████████ ████

b

Most vicious dogs ████ ███████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ████ █ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████

c

Most well-behaved dogs ████ █████████ █████████ █████████ █████ ██ █ ███ ███ ███ █████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ████ ████████

d

Most of the ████ █████ ██ █████████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████ █████

e

Most puppies are █████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ██████ █████ █ █████ ████ ██ █████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████

Confirm action

Are you sure?