Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The municipal legislator argues that there is no issue with the city accepting high-tech streetlights as a gift from a lighting company, even though some people believe the company is trying to influence future lighting contracts. The legislator reasons that the company's only underlying goal is to showcase its products to visiting mayors, and that the city's bidding process would prevent preferential treatment in contracts anyway.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is that there would be no issue with the city accepting a lighting company’s gift of several high-tech streetlights: “there would be no problem in accepting these”.
A
Some people’s fear that the company wants to influence the city’s decision regarding park lighting contracts is unfounded.
While the legislator acknowledges that some people have this fear, he does not claim it is unfounded. Instead, he provides evidence for why the city should still accept the streetlights, despite that fear.
B
The mayor’s proposal to accept the gift of streetlights should not be considered problematic.
This rephrases our conclusion that there is no problem with the city accepting the gifted streetlights.
C
It is not appropriate that any company should have the unique opportunity to display its products to mayors attending the upcoming convention.
The legislator does not make this claim. While he acknowledges that the lighting company desires this opportunity, he does not say the opportunity is inappropriate.
D
The city’s competitive-bidding procedure prevents favoritism in the dispensing of city contracts.
This is support for the conclusion. It is evidence for why there is no problem with the city accepting the gifted streetlights; any potential favoritism would be prevented by the city’s competitive-bidding process.
E
The lighting company’s desire to display its products to visiting mayors is the real motivation behind the suggested gift of streetlights.
This part of the stimulus is support for the conclusion. The legislator believes this opportunity is the only ulterior motive for the gift, supporting the conclusion that accepting the gift would be unproblematic.
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Some citizens argue that, because users of a proposed trail would likely litter an area, that the development of the trail should not proceed.
The author asserts that because most trail users will be dedicated hikers who care about the environment, the particular complaint about hikers’ likelihood to litter is groundless. Thus, the author concludes, trail development should proceed.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that showing the citizens’ support for their conclusion is wrong proves that the citizens’ conclusion is wrong. In other words, the author overlooks the possibility that even if the particular objection concerning littering is groundless, we still should not proceed with development of the trail.
A
bases its conclusion mainly on a claim that an opposing argument is weak
The author points out the citizens’ argument is weak — the citizens’ premise concerning likelihood of littering is groundless. But this doesn’t prove that trail development should proceed. The citizens’ conclusion can still be right, even if the argument in support of it is weak.
B
illicitly infers that because each member of a set has a certain property that set itself has the property
The author doesn’t cite to a premise stating that each member of a set (trail users) has great concern for the environment. The premise says “most” trail users will have great concern; this isn’t a claim about “each” trail user.
C
illicitly assumes as one of its premises the contention it purports to show
(C) describes circular reasoning. None of the author’s conclusions are assumed in the premise. The premise is that most trail users will have great concern for the environment; this idea is not restated in any of the author’s conclusions.
D
illicitly infers that an attribute of a few users of the proposed trail will characterize a majority of users of the trail
The author’s premise asserts that “most” trail users will have great concern for the environment. This is simply a fact that we accept as true, because it is a premise. The author did not try to infer this premise from some other claim about a few trail users.
E
attacks the citizens in the group rather than their objection to developing the trail
The author does not attack the citizens. The author attacks the argument the citizens gave in support of their conclusion.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did profits decline for businesses that used a customer satisfaction survey designed to increase profits while businesses that did not use a survey experienced no such decline?
Objective
The right answer will explain some difference between the businesses that used the survey and the businesses that did not. That difference could be a result of the survey, or it could be some pre-existing factor. In either case, it will highlight an issue with the survey-using businesses that is not present in the others.
A
When one business increases its profits, its competitors often report a decline in profits.
This doesn’t explain why businesses that used a survey experienced declines in profits while others did not. Even if one group must do worse, we might expect the businesses that collected customer feedback to be the ones that faired better. We want to know why that didn’t happen.
B
Some businesses routinely use customer surveys.
This doesn’t add any new information. We already know that some businesses routinely use customer surveys—the stimulus tells us that!
C
Most businesses of the kind included in the study generally administer customer surveys only as a response to complaints by customers.
This is the explanation we need. If the surveys are only administered as a response to complaints, then the businesses that administered surveys are the ones that customers had complaints about. If customers were complaining, it makes sense that sales and profits declined!
D
Customers who complete surveys do not always respond accurately to all the questions on the survey.
Even if businesses acted on the results of inaccurate responses, it doesn’t explain why they would have worse profit growth than those that did not use surveys at all. This answer doesn’t tell us anything about the correlation between administering surveys and declining profits.
E
Some of the businesses included in the study did not analyze the results of the customer surveys they conducted.
This could explain why the surveys did not help some businesses increase their profits, but it doesn’t give us any information about why most of the survey-using businesses experienced decreased profits while most others did not.
Summary
Traditionally people believed only classical Euclidean geometry could correctly represent the universe mathematically. However, scientists now believe that non-Euclidean geometrical representations of the universe are much more useful. In fact, non-Euclidean representations underly the cosmological theory most widely accepted by scientists.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Modern scientists do not believe that classical Euclidean geometry is the only method for representing the universe mathematically.
A
Scientists who use Euclidean geometry are likely to believe that progress in mathematical theory results in progress in natural science.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus anything about the beliefs of scientists who subscribe to Euclidean theory. We only know that nowadays most scientists subscribe to a non-Euclidean theory.
B
Scientists generally do not now believe that classical Euclidean geometry is uniquely capable of giving a correct mathematical representation of the universe.
This answer is strongly supported. We know from the stimulus that modern scientists believe that non-Euclidean representations are more useful than classical Euclidean theory.
C
Non-Euclidean geometry is a more complete way of representing the universe than is Euclidean geometry.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus which theory more completely represents the universe. We only know that the non-Euclidean theory is more useful for developing certain areas of scientific theory.
D
An accurate scientific theory cannot be developed without the discovery of a uniquely correct way of mathematically representing the universe.
This answer is unsupported. The stimulus does not conclude that the non-Euclidean theory is uniquely correct. We only know that most scientists have found it more useful than classical Euclidean theory.
E
The usefulness of a mathematical theory is now considered by scientists to be more important than its mathematical correctness.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know what qualities scientists think are more important in any theory.