Summarize Argument
A ranking system that evaluates workers based on their performance relative to a group of workers is unfair. It penalizes workers in strong groups by judging them against the company’s top performers instead of all its employees. Additionally, the system relies on managers’ subjective judgments, leading to biased ratings based on managers’ favorites rather than the workers’ actual performance.
Identify Conclusion
A system that ranks workers based on their performance relative to their work group “is unfair to workers.”
A
Some companies require their managers to give unique rankings to the workers they supervise.
This sentence provides context by setting the stage for the argument in the stimulus. It introduces the idea of ranking workers, a practice some companies use, which the stimulus ultimately argues against.
B
Under the ranking system, the top 10 percent of the workers in each group are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent are penalized or fired.
This sentence provides context by explaining how the ranking system works. This explanation offers the background needed to understand the author’s argument that the ranking system is unfair to workers.
C
The ranking system is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards for workers.
This answer choice accurately summarizes the argument’s main conclusion. The stimulus states that the ranking system is “not a fair way to determine” workers’ rewards and penalties, which directly restates the conclusion that the system is “unfair to workers.”
D
Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized under the ranking system.
This states the argument’s first premise. The stimulus argues that the ranking system is unfair because it judges some workers more harshly than others. For instance, workers in a strong group are held to a higher standard than those compared to a group of weaker performers.
E
Managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s outside interests.
This answer addresses the argument’s second premise. The stimulus argues that the ranking system is unfair because it is subjective, allowing managers to favor employees who share their interests instead of evaluating based on relevant criteria like work ethic or contribution.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The psychologist concludes that napping tends to cause insomnia. This is based on the observation that, on commercial fishing vessels and in a study of university students, people who nap often tend to suffer from insomnia more often.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The psychologist observes a correlation between frequent napping and insomnia, and concludes that napping causes insomnia. This conclusion is flawed because it overlooks the alternative explanation that insomnia (and the resulting sleep deprivation) causes people to take naps more often.
A
presumes, without providing justification, that university students suffer from insomnia more frequently than do members of the general population
The psychologist doesn’t presume that university students suffer from insomnia more often than members of the general public.
B
presumes that all instances of insomnia have the same cause
The psychologist doesn’t claim that all instances of insomnia have the same cause, just that napping is one cause of insomnia.
C
fails to provide a scientifically respectable definition for the term “napping”
It’s not needed for the psychologist to define the term “napping”; the term clearly refers to short periods of sleeping during the day.
D
fails to consider the possibility that frequent daytime napping is an effect rather than a cause of insomnia
The psychologist’s argument only considers one possible causal relationship between insomnia and napping—that napping causes insomnia. This fails to consider the alternative causality that insomnia leads to more frequent napping.
E
presumes, without providing justification, that there is such a thing as a regular sleep pattern for someone working on a commercial fishing vessel
Whether or not commercial fishers can ever have regular sleep patterns is irrelevant to their role in the argument. What’s important is just that commercial fishers also display a correlation between napping and insomnia.
Summarize Argument
The editorialist concludes that the president of a corporation has a duty to keep profits high because their role involves promoting the shareholders’ key interests.
Notable Assumptions
The editorialist assumes that high profits are a key interest of shareholders and that by keeping profits high, the president of a corporation is at least partially promoting shareholders’ key interests.
A
Shareholders sometimes will be satisfied even if dividends paid to them from company profits are not high.
This doesn’t help to establish that high profits are a key interest of shareholders. The editorialist doesn’t mention whether the dividends paid to shareholders should be high or not.
B
The president and the board of directors of a corporation are jointly responsible for advancing the key interests of the shareholders.
Even if the president shares this responsibility with the board, it doesn’t change the fact that the president promotes shareholders’ interests. And (B) doesn’t help to establish that high profits are one of those interests.
C
Keeping a corporation’s profits high is likely to advance the important interests of the corporation’s shareholders.
This suggests that high profits are a key interest of shareholders. If keeping profits high is likely to promote shareholders’ key interests and the president’s role involves promoting their interests, this suggests that the president does have a duty to keep profits high.
D
In considering where to invest, most potential shareholders are interested in more than just the profitability of a corporation.
Even if shareholders are interested in more than just profit, we still need to know whether high profits are among their key interests.
E
The president of a corporation has many functions besides advancing the important interests of the corporation’s shareholders.
It doesn't matter how many other functions the president has. Since one function is to promote shareholders' interests, we still need to determine if high profit is one of those interests.
Summary
Everyone in Biba’s neighborhood is permitted to swim at Barton Pool at some time during the pool’s open hours.
No children under the age of 6 are allowed to swim at Barton Pool between noon and 5pm.
Between 5pm and close, only adults are permitted to swim at Barton Pool.
No children under the age of 6 are allowed to swim at Barton Pool between noon and 5pm.
Between 5pm and close, only adults are permitted to swim at Barton Pool.
Notable Valid Inferences
Children under 6 are not allowed to swim at Barton Pool between noon and the pool’s closing time.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool at some time during the pools open hours.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool sometime before noon.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool at some time during the pools open hours.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool sometime before noon.
A
Few children under the age of 6 live in Biba’s neighborhood.
Could be false. The stimulus doesn’t give us any information about the age breakdown in Biba’s neighborhood.
B
If Biba’s next-door neighbor has a child under the age of 6, then Barton Pool is open before noon.
Must be true. Everyone in Biba’s neighborhood is permitted to swim in the pool at some time during its open hours, and children under 6 are not permitted to swim from noon until close. So if someone under 6 lives in the neighborhood, the pool must be open for them before noon!
C
If most children who swim in Barton Pool swim in the afternoon, then the pool is generally less crowded after 5 P.M.
Could be false. Maybe a small number of children swim in Barton Pool and a huge number of adults do, and all the adults swim after 5 P.M.!
D
On days when Barton Pool is open, at least some children swim there in the afternoon.
Could be false. The stimulus only gives us information about when different age groups are permitted to swim in the pool. It does not tell us anything about who actually swims in the pool, or when they choose to do so.
E
Any child swimming in Barton Pool before 5 P.M. must be breaking Barton Pool rules.
Could be false. If there are children in the neighborhood who are between 6 years old and adulthood, they’re permitted to swim in the pool between noon and 5!