Self-study
On the first day of trout season a team of biologists went with local trout anglers to the Macawber River. ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █ █████ █████ ███████ █ ██ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ █ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ █████████████ ███ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the average trout in the Macawber River at the start of trout season weighed around 1.6 kilograms. As support, the author says that trout anglers who caught at least two trout on the first day of trout season chose two of their catches for a team of biologists to weigh.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is a sampling flaw. Because the trout that were weighed were selected by the anglers (instead of chosen randomly), there is no reason to believe that the sample of trout that were weighed is representative of the overall trout population in the Macawber River.
3.
The reasoning above is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
makes a generalization ████ █ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████████
(A) accurately describes the sampling flaw in the argument. Because the trout that were weighed were chosen by the anglers instead of selected randomly, it is unlikely that the 90 trout that were weighed are representative of the overall trout population.
b
relies on evidence ████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ██████████
This is descriptively inaccurate––this argument does not use anecdotal evidence. Instead, the argument describes the process used to obtain the data.
c
ignores the variations ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██████
While (C) is descriptively accurate, it is not the flaw because it is irrelevant to the argument. The scope of the argument is limited to the start of trout season, so variations that occur through the season are irrelevant.
d
fails to take ████ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████
The argument doesn’t need to take these old measurements into account––the conclusion is limited in scope to the beginning of this season, so only information from this year is needed.
e
does not consider ███████ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████
It doesn’t matter for the argument whether any fish other than trout were caught. The argument only discusses the weight of trout, so other fish are irrelevant.