PT126.S4.Q12 > Question

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

SECTION 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6

PASSAGE 2

Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3

Question 14 Question 15 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 3 · lr

SECTION 4 · lr

The author concludes that consumer price increases have not averaged less than 3 percent over the last year. This is based on the fact that various specific consumer items have had price increases that exceed 3 percent over the last year.

The author uses a potentially unrepresentative sample. The conclusion concerns average consumer price increases — this is a statistic that takes into account the price increases of every consumer item. Even if certain specific consumer items have increased more than 3%, that doesn’t bear upon the overall average price increase, unless we know that the price increases of those items are representative of the price increases of other consumer items.

The author’s reasoning isn’t based on attacking the economists’ character. Although the author does note that they haven’t shopped anywhere recently, this isn’t a comment on character. And, the actual evidence concerns price increases of specific consumer items.

The author doesn’t need to show that the economists aren’t experts. Maybe they are experts; they can still be wrong about their claims concerning average price increases over the past year.

The author relies on price increases of specific consumer items. The author did not say as part of the reasoning, “Economists haven’t shown that price increases aren’t lower than 3% over the past year.”

The evidence concerns specific consumer items that have had large price increases. But we have no reason to think those specific items are representative of consumer items generally. There can always be outliers to a statistical average.

The author relies on statistics concerning specific consumer items. This is not an appeal to emotions.

PrepTest 126 - Section 4 - Question 12

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