Prompt: The flawed reasoning in which one of the following is most closely parallel…
Difficulty: 🌕🌕🌕🌑
How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?
Only the right answer will use the same kind of support and the same kind of conclusion as the passage, so only the right answer will have the same flaw.
Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:
Thus it is training, not the genetic makeup of the breed, that accounts for these Labrador retrievers’ good behavior.
[SUPPORT]. However, [SUPPORT]. Thus [CONCLUSION].
The right answer will need to have a cause-and-effect conclusion, just like the passage says the training caused the good behavior and not genetics. And it’s pretty much 100% that it will have a premise with a necessary condition, just like the passage says the training is needed for the pet to be well behaved.
Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:
(A) …all schools should hire good teachers if they want their students to excel.
This is pretty warm. The only meaningful difference is that this conclusion doesn’t rule out an alternative cause the way the passage ruled out genetics. That doesn’t automatically mean this is eliminated, but you’d expect a more exact match to show up.
(B) …it is not icy roads, but carelessness, that causes car crashes…
That’s a perfect match for the conclusion. And “unless people were careless” is saying that carelessness is necessary just like the passage said training is necessary.
(C) Every musician I know is…Every mathematician I know is…
These premises don’t say anything is necessary, so they won’t end up having the same flaw as the passage.
(D) …you must use butter, not margarine, in your cooking.
Be careful here. A requirement is not the same thing as a cause. This conclusion says butter is necessary, but it doesn’t say using butter causes good cooking. Eliminated.
(E) …not because they did any good work.
This misses the mark a few different ways, but the easiest to spot under time pressure is probably that this conclusion is only ruling out a cause. It doesn’t something causes something else like the passage does.
(B) is the correct answer.
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