Summarize Argument
Whether someone’s faithfulness is considered a good thing depends on what they’re faithful to. Virtues are qualities we admire and praise, which is why resentment isn’t seen as a virtue, even though it shows faithfulness to anger or grudges. Being faithful to something harmful, like hatred, isn’t praiseworthy, so it’s not considered a virtue.
Identify Conclusion
The argument's conclusion is that whether or not a person's faithfulness can be considered a virtue depends on the object of that faithfulness. In other words, faithfulness is only a virtue if it is directed toward something praiseworthy.
A
The object of a person’s faithfulness partially determines whether or not that faithfulness is virtuous.
This statement summarizes the argument’s main conclusion because it captures the idea that the virtue of faithfulness depends on what it's directed toward. If the object is praiseworthy, the faithfulness is virtuous; if the object is not, the faithfulness isn't.
B
Virtuous behavior is praiseworthy by definition.
This serves as a supporting premise. It explains why only faithfulness to something praiseworthy can be considered a virtue, but it doesn't capture the main point of the argument, which is that the virtue of faithfulness depends on its object.
C
Behavior that emerges from hatred or animosity cannot be called virtuous.
This is a premise of the argument. It provides an example that supports the conclusion by showing that not all forms of faithfulness are virtuous. It uses hatred or animosity to demonstrate that the virtue of faithfulness depends on what it’s directed toward.
D
Faithfulness and resentment are obviously different, despite some similarities.
This statement contradicts a premise of the argument. The stimulus argues that resentment is a type of faithfulness, not that they are "obviously different."
E
Resentment should not be considered a virtuous emotion.
The stimulus doesn't make this claim. It states that resentment isn’t considered a virtuous emotion but doesn’t discuss whether it should be. The stimulus doesn’t judge whether it’s right that resentment isn't viewed as virtuous; it simply presents this as an objective fact.
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Wilson’s net income from sales of hair dryers must be half of what it was 5 years ago. This is because 5 years ago, the hair dryer from Wilson was 50% of all hair dryers sold nationwide. But today it’s only 25% of all hair dryers sold nationwide. In addition, the net income Wilson gets per hair dryer sold has stayed the same.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author takes for granted that there hasn’t been an increase in overall hair dryer sales nationwide. In other words, the author overlooks that even though Wilson’s market share has gone down, it can still be selling more hair dryers than it did 5 years ago.
A
mistakes a decline in the market share of Wilson Appliance’s hair dryer for a decline in the total sales of that product
The author thinks the decline in market share (from 50% to 25%) implies a decline in overall sales of Wilson hairdryers. This is flawed, because the overall hairdryer market could have increased, such that 25% of the market involves more sales than 50% of the market 5 years ago.
B
does not provide specific information about the profits hair dryers generate for the companies that produce them
Hair dryer profits are irrelevant, because the conclusion is just about net income from sales of hair dryers. Profits involve income minus expenses.
C
fails to discuss sales figures for Wilson Appliance’s products other than its hair dryers
The argument doesn’t need to comment on sales of other products. The argument’s conclusion is concerned only with Wilson’s hair dryer.
D
overlooks the possibility that the retail price of Wilson Appliance’s hair dryer may have increased over the past 5 years
The price of the hair dryer is irrelevant because we already know that the net income Wilson receives per hair dryer hasn’t changed. Maybe the price went up, maybe it went down — regardless, the net income is the same.
E
provides no independent evidence that Wilson Appliance’s hair dryer is one of the company’s least profitable products
The argument doesn’t conclude or assume that the hair dryer is one of the company’s least profitable products.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
The group using mite-proof bedding reported no reduction in allergy symptoms despite the fact that the dust-mite allergens in their mattresses decreased by 69%.
Objective
The right answer will either show how a 69% reduction in mattress dust-mite allergens could have no impact on people’s symptoms, or explain that the participants’ reports inaccurately downplayed a symptom reduction that did occur.
A
Dust-mite allergens in bedding tend to irritate many allergy sufferers’ nasal passages more than do the same allergens in other locations, such as carpets.
This does the opposite of what we need. If bedding tends to be the dust-mite location that most irritates allergy sufferers, we would expect a 69% reduction in mattress allergens to lead to a decrease in allergy symptoms. We want something that shows why that didn’t happen here.
B
When people report their own allergy symptoms, they tend to exaggerate the severity of those symptoms.
Even if the allergy sufferers exaggerated the severity of their symptoms, they would have done so both before and after the study, meaning we would still expect the reports to show a change due to the decreased allergen exposure. This answer doesn’t explain why that didn’t occur.
C
The medical community does not fully understand how dust-mite allergens cause allergy.
In order for this to be the right answer, we would need some indication that the information the medical community is missing would explain why the allergy sufferers in the experiment did not experience a reduction in symptoms. Because this doesn’t give us that, it’s not helpful.
D
For dust-mite allergy sufferers to get relief from their allergies, dust-mite allergens must be reduced by 90 to 95 percent.
This explains why the participants in the study did not experience a reduction in their allergy symptoms: their exposure to allergens did not decrease enough to lead to symptom relief.
E
All of the participants in the study were told that one group in the study would be sleeping on mite-proof bedding.
This doesn’t help us. Many studies are structured this way; as long as participants are unaware of which group they are in, we wouldn’t expect a placebo effect to skew the reports of allergy symptoms.