Self-study
Support Twenty percent of the population of Springhill has been to Italy at least once in the last five years, and Support thirty percent of the population of Springhill has been to France at least once in the last five years. ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████
Objective: Identify a Flaw
The argument concludes that at least half of Springhill's residents have been to Europe at some point in the last five years. How do we know? Because in the last five years 20% of residents have been to Italy, and 30% of residents have been to France.
That seems pretty reasonable if we add up the percentages—20% plus 30% equals 50%, after all. But for that to work, we would need to make the unwarranted assumption that the residents who went to Italy and the residents who went to France were all different people. If the groups overlapped at all, then they would make up less than half of Springhill residents, which would be a real problem for the argument.
The issue with the argument is that it doesn't address the possibility that some of the same people went to both Italy and France. It just assumes that wasn't the case. So that's the possibility we're looking for in the answer choices, that the argument ignores.
2.
The argument is faulty because ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████
a
some of the ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████
The argument does acknowledge this possibility: it only claims that half of Springhill residents have been to Europe in the last five years. That's a whole other half of the population that the argument acknowledges haven't been to Italy nor to France.
b
some of the ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████
The argument claims that half of residents have been to Europe because 20% have been to Italy and 30% have been to France, but it never considers that these groups could overlap. And any overlap would undermine the conclusion, so ignoring this possibility is a flaw.
c
some of the ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ██ ████
This is exactly what the argument claims: that 20% have been to Italy (and only Italy), and 30% have been to France (and only France). The argument doesn't overlook this, it baselessly assumes that this is true.
d
none of the ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████
The argument doesn't exclude this possibility. Based on the residents who have gone to Italy and France, it claims that half the population has been to Europe, but it doesn't say "only" half. It's still possible that more Springhill residents have visited other European countries.
e
none of the ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████
The argument specifies that these residents have been to Italy or France "at least once." That acknowledges the possibility that they've visited more than once.