A
Even water that contains up to 5,000 milligrams of dissolved salt per liter is safe to drink.
B
The concentration of dissolved salt in Albritten’s groundwater is expected to reach 400 milligrams per liter within a few decades.
C
Salting icy roads is the simplest way to prevent accidents on those roads.
D
Albritten’s groundwater contained roughly 90 milligrams of dissolved salt per liter 20 years ago.
E
Salting of Albritten’s roads is likely to decrease over the next few decades.
A
reaches a conclusion about how people actually behave on the basis of assertions regarding how they ought to behave
B
bases a generalization about all books of etiquette on the actions of a few authors
C
fails to justify its presumption regarding the influence of rules of etiquette on individual behavior
D
overlooks the possibility that authors of etiquette books are purporting to state what is correct behavior for one particular culture only
E
attempts to lend itself credence by unfairly labeling the position of the authors of etiquette books “absurd”
The Question stem reads: The reasoning in the argument is the most vulnerable to criticism on grounds that the argument… This is a Flaw question.
The stimulus begins by describing how many books describe the rules of etiquette. Usually, etiquette book authors classify behavior standards as polite or rude. We turn to the argument with the context indicator, however. The argument claims that the classifying behavior (as polite or rude) suggests there is a universal, objective standard of politeness. The argument subsequently claims that there are standards of politeness that vary from culture. The argument concludes that it is absurd to label a set of behaviors as correct and another set of behaviors as incorrect.
That is one of those rare Flaw questions that are hard to prephase. On the surface, it doesn't seem completely awful. At the very least, picking out a specifically egregious problem is difficult. Let's turn to the answer choices and see what we find.
Answer Choice (A) is incorrect. We can eliminate (A) because the argument does not make a conclusion on how people actually behave. Additionally, there are no premises that make a claim on how people ought to behave.
Answer Choice (B) is incorrect because the argument does not make a generalization about all books. The stimulus says that authors of etiquette books usually classify behavior as polite or impolite. Additionally, the argument does not conclude that all etiquette books are absurd, merely the ones that label one set of behaviors as correct and another as incorrect. (B) would look better if the argument said something to the effect of: etiquette books are absurd; therefore, all etiquette books are absurd.
Answer Choice (C) is incorrect because the argument does not rely on nor conclude anything about how these etiquette books actually influence behavior.
Correct Answer Choice (D) looks good. If it is true that etiquette books attempt to show what is polite or impolite in their specific cultures, there would be no suggestion of a universal standard of politeness. The fact that other cultures have different standards of politeness wouldn't be a problem for a book on British politeness because the author only suggests that these etiquette guidelines are British.
Answer Choice (E) is incorrect because the argument is not attempting to strengthen itself by labeling the author's position as absurd; the argument is trying to prove that the author's position is absurd.
Having striking musical ideas is not required to contribute to a jazz recording.
A
The success of a group enterprise depends on the ability of the leader to recognize the weaknesses of others in the group.
B
The production of any great work requires contributions from those who are unimaginative but technically skilled.
C
People without forceful personalities cannot become great leaders in a field.
D
A trait that is a weakness in some settings can contribute to greatness in other settings.
E
No one can achieve great success without the help of others who are able to bring one’s ideas to fruition.
Editorial: When legislators discover that some public service is not being adequately provided, their most common response is to boost the funding for that public service. Because of this, the least efficiently run government bureaucracies are the ones that most commonly receive an increase in funds.
Summary
Legislators usually boost funding for a public service whenever it’s discovered that that public service isn’t being adequately provided. Therefore, the least efficiently run government bureaucracies are the ones that usually receive increased funding.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The least efficiently run government bureaucracies are usually discovered by legislators to not provide a public service adequately.
A
The least efficiently run government bureaucracies are the bureaucracies that legislators most commonly discover to be failing to provide some public service adequately.
If the least efficient bureaucracies are the bureaucracies that most commonly receive funding, these bureaucracies must most commonly receive increased funding.
B
When legislators discover that a public service is not being adequately provided, they never respond to the problem by reducing the funding of the government bureaucracy providing that service.
We don’t know whether legislators never respond by reducing funding. We only know that their most common response is to increase funding.
C
Throughout the time a government bureaucracy is run inefficiently, legislators repeatedly boost the funding for the public service that this bureaucracy provides.
We don’t know whether legislators repeatedly increase funding throughout their response. It is possible that legislators choose to increase funding for a public service just once.
D
If legislators boost funding for a public service, the government bureaucracy providing that service will commonly become less efficient as a result.
We don’t know whether bureaucracies receiving increased funding become less efficient as a result. It is possible that the remedy of increased funding works and these bureaucracies become more efficient than they once were.
E
The most inefficiently run government bureaucracy receives the most funding of any government bureaucracy.
We don’t know whether inefficient bureaucracies receive more funding compared to any other bureaucracy. It is possible that inefficient bureaucracies receiving increased funding still receive less funding overall.
A
maintaining that too little is known about Kathleen to justify any conclusion
B
showing that Kathleen must not have worked with famous actors
C
claiming that Fred has failed to take relevant information into account
D
showing that Fred has mistakenly assumed that all successful film directors work with famous actors
E
demonstrating that Fred has failed to show that most successful film directors work with famous actors
A
No classes in Queenston’s school system experienced an increase in enrollment between 1990 and 1993.
B
The total number of students enrolled in Queenston’s school system increased between 1990 and 1993.
C
The operating budget of Queenston’s school system increased by exactly 30 percent between 1990 and 1993.
D
Most teachers who worked for Queenston’s school system in 1990 were still working for the system in 1993.
E
The quality of education in Queenston’s school system improved between 1990 and 1993.
Detailed Explanation
We have an MBT question which we can glean from the question stem which reads: If the statements above are true, then on the basis of them which one of the following must also be true?
Our stimulus tells us that in the year 1990, the municipality of Queesnton raised taxes that increased the budget of its school system. The schools in turn used the increase in budget to increase the number of teachers they employed by 30%. However, the average number of students per teacher remained constant between 1990 and 1993.
This is almost phrased like an RRE question, right? It’s constructed as if there’s a paradox here. But let’s think about this: is it hard to reconcile the fact that the number of teachers went up while the average number of students to teachers stayed the same? No! Think about it: if the total number of dogs went up in NYC but the number of dogs per household stayed the same, would that make sense? Yes! It just means there are more households that own dogs. If we think about this as a fraction, both the numerator and denominator (top and bottom) of the fraction went up at the same rate. The same thing could be true for our students per teacher average, right? If the number of teachers went up and the number of students rose at the same rate (in this case 30%), then the average number of students per teacher would remain the same.
Ok now that we’ve synthesized the information here, let’s look at the answer choices:
Answer Choice (A) We need the classes to increase in enrollment because otherwise the number of students would remain constant while the number of teachers would increase. This would throw off our proportion so the average number of students per teacher would not remain the same.
Correct Answer Choice (B) This is exactly what we need. If the number of teachers goes up, we need the number of students to increase as well in order for the average number of students per teacher to remain the same.
Answer Choice (C) This is unsupported. We know that the increase in budget allowed the school district to hire more teachers, but it’s really immaterial how much the budget increased by. We already know the number of teachers increased, how the budget corresponds to that is not necessary for us to understand.
Answer Choice (D) There’s nothing to suggest that the district either retained old teachers or hired new teachers–the bottom line is that the number of teachers increased.
Answer Choice (E) This is completely unrelated to the ratio of students to teachers and is wholly unsupported by our passage.
An analogous argument would be: “All great writers sleep at least 4 hours at night. Therefore, the better you are at writing, the more hours per night you sleep.”
A
It assumes, without providing justification, that members of a group that is part of a larger group possess all of the characteristics possessed by members of the larger group.
B
It assumes, without providing justification, that because something is sometimes the case it must always be the case.
C
It assumes, without providing justification, that those artists with political insight do not have insight into matters outside of politics.
D
It assumes, without providing justification, that only great individuals can make discerning criticisms of their societies.
E
It assumes, without providing justification, that because people who have one quality tend to have a second quality, those who have more of the first quality will have more of the second.
The question stem reads: Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the reasoning above? This is a Flaw question.
The stimulus begins by claiming that "it is a characteristic of great artists generally, and of great writers in particular, to have a discerning view of the basic social and political arrangements of the society in which they live." That was a mouthful. "It" refers to the ability to discern the social and political arrangements of society. Let's reorganize this sentence to read:"Having a discerning view of the basic social and political arrangments of society is a characteristic of great artists generally and great writers in particular.
I have italicized the "and" to highlight the sentence structure of one subject and two predicates. The subject is the ability to discern social and political arrangements in society. The predicates can be broken down to 1.) is a characteristic of great artists generally and 2.) is a characteristic of great writers in particular. Let us do away with predicate 1 and only focus on predicate 2. Now we get:
"The ability to discern society's social and political arrangements is a characteristic of great writers."
The argument then concludes that the greater the writer you are, the greater your ability to perceive your society's social and political arrangements.
The stimulus has claimed that being a great writer is sufficient to perceive society. The argument concluded that as you increase the sufficient condition (greatness in writing), you will see an increase in the necessary condition (ability to perceive society). This is flawed reasoning. Do you know what else being a great writer is sufficient for? Having two eyeballs. Using the stimulus' reasoning, the greater the writer you are, the more eyeballs you will have. You see where I am going here? That is our flaw. The stimulus assumes that more of a sufficient condition means more of a necessary condition. Let's go to the answer choices.
Answer Choice (A) is not what we are looking for. (A) is the fallacy of division: assuming what is true of the whole must be true for some or all of its parts. (A) would look better if the argument said: "Great artists generally have the ability to discern society; therefore, great writers have the ability to discern society.
Answer Choice (B) is incorrect. (B) would look better if the argument went: great writers sometimes have the ability to discern society. Therefore all great writers have the ability to discern society.
Answer Choice (C) is incorrect. The argument makes no mention of what writers or artists do not have the ability to discern.
Answer Choice (D) is not what the argument does. First, the argument is not concerned with great individuals, only great writers. Second, the argument does not make a sufficient vs. necessary error. (D) would look better if the argument went: "Great writers have the ability to discern society. Therefore only great writers have the ability to discern society.
Correct Answer Choice (E) is what we discussed.
Because modern literature treats protagonists who scorn society sympathetically, and this sympathetic treatment suggests to readers that they shouldn’t be concerned about societal good.
More specifically, the author assumes that being unconcerned with societal good can lead to harm to one’s self and to society.