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Explanations

PT130.S4.Q14

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 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2
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

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

SECTION 3 · 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 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

PrepTest 130 - Section 4 - Question 14

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

Editorial: Support A recent survey shows that 77 percent of people feel that crime is increasing and that 87 percent feel the judicial system should be handing out tougher sentences. ██████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ █████

Summarize Argument

The editorial concludes that the government must address the rising crime rate. It supports this by citing a survey showing that 77% of people believe crime is increasing and 87% believe the judicial system should give tougher sentences.

Identify and Describe Flaw

This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing belief and fact. The editorial concludes that the government needs to address the rising crime rate simply because most people believe that the crime rate is rising. To reach its conclusion, the editorial must assume that this belief is true and the crime rate actually is rising, but it presents no evidence to support this assumption.

Analysis by EleanorRoberts

Show answer

14.

The reasoning in the editorial's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████

appeals to survey ███████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ██████

The survey results are not inconsistent, nor do they suggest that more people are concerned about sentencing than about crime. Just because more people want tougher sentences than think crime is rising doesn’t mean that sentencing is a bigger concern than crime.

presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ █████ ██ █ ███████████ ███████ ████████ █████████ █████ ███████ █████████ ███ █ ████ █████ ████

The editorial never makes this assumption. It’s possible that the survey respondents assume this, but the editorial never makes an assumption about any correlation between lenient sentencing and high crime.

fails to consider ███████ █████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████

This doesn’t explain why the argument is vulnerable to criticism, because the editorial doesn’t need to address any contradictory surveys taken over the years. Instead, it’s vulnerable because it assumes that people’s beliefs about crime rates reflect the actual crime rate.

fails to distinguish ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████

The editorial assumes that because 77% of people “feel” that crime is increasing, crime actually is increasing. It fails to distinguish between most people’s belief about something and the factual reality of that thing.

presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ ███████

The author argues that the government must address rising crime, but it never makes any assumptions about how the government should address it or what the most effective means of alleviating crime might be.

Difficulty

Question

91% 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% 135

143

75% 151

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.

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Stimulus Tags

Mental state v. reality

Stimuli that feature a jump from a claim about reality to a claim about mental state (or vice versa) in a way that informs our evaluation of the answer choices.

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Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

154

155

157

91%

165

150

Question history

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