Support All etching tools are either pin-tipped or bladed. █████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██████████
The author concludes that, for engraving, there are more engraving etching tools than non-engraving etching tools. Why? Because all etching tools are either pin-tipped or bladed; pin-tipped are always engraving tools, and bladed tools could be either.
The conclusion is a comparative statement of quantity (actual numbers), but we don’t have information about quantity. If pin-tipped tools aren’t high enough in numbers, the conclusion won’t be true. We need to know either that pin-tipped and bladed are equal in number of tools, or that pin-tipped is larger in number.
Illustrating the argument’s weakness in a hypothetical: Maybe pin-tipped only accounts for two tools, while bladed accounts for 300 tools and 2/3rds are non-engraving.
The conclusion of the argument ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
All tools used ███ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████
This does not solve the weakness described in our analysis. Without knowing the total quantity of the sets pin-tipped and bladed, we could still have a situation where non-engraving tools outnumber the engraving tools.
There are as ████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████
If this is true, then there’s no possible distribution of bladed tools that could prevent our conclusion. Even if there’s only one bladed tool used for engraving, the combination of pin-tipped and bladed engraving tools will still outnumber non-engraving.
No etching tool ██ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████
We already knew this. Though not explicitly stated, we can safely interpret “All etching tools are either pin-tipped or bladed” to mean that they must be one or the other, but not both. It also does not guarantee our conclusion.
The majority of ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██████████
This does not guarantee that engraving tools outnumber non-engraving, or the other way around. We could manipulate the unknown total number of bladed or pin-tipped tools to suit either conclusion. We need to know that the total number in each set will prevent that from happening.
All etching tools ████ ███ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████
We know this as inference from the support: All etching tools are either pin-tipped or bladed, and all of the non-engraving etching tools are in the bladed category.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnosticWant to know why the right answer is right?
7Sage membership unlocks explanations of every question. Every answer choice. On every official PrepTest. Start with a free account.
By signing up you agree to our
terms of service.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy
and
Terms of Service
apply.