PrepTest 120, Section 1, Question 21
Opposition leader: Our country has the least fair(39 more words not shown)
The flawed reasoning in which(15 more words not shown)
- AThe residents of(40 more words not shown)
- BAt a certain(32 more words not shown)
- CFor many years(34 more words not shown)
- DDomestic cats are(24 more words not shown)
- EIf a suit(43 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe the local courts are a mess and the highest court is excellent. I'm willing to grant that the country's court system is the least fair overall. I can also understand why we wouldn't want other countries to copy that system. But the leader then singles out one court. Why must that particular court be the worst? It could be the one institution doing its job fairly while the rest of the system drags the country's ranking down.
What we’re looking for
For a parallel, imagine saying that a university has the strongest students, so any particular student there must be brilliant. The university's overall strength doesn't settle how capable that individual is. We need the same move here: take a ranking of the whole and assign that ranking to one of its parts. Let's see which answer actually does that.
Working the answers
- A
There is a tempting move from a group average to individuals, but the comparison also changes who belongs to the group. The premise concerns people who currently live in medium-sized towns. Maureen was born in one; that doesn't tell us where she lives now. Monica has just moved to one, so she is now a resident. The argument uses birthplace and recent arrival to rank two individuals. Our court argument instead takes the ranking of an entire system and assigns it to one court within that system.
- BCorrect
The either/or wording initially looks unlike our argument, but follow what happens to the ranking. One of these majors is the most demanding. The argument then assumes that one of their introductory courses must be the most demanding introductory course.
Why? Perhaps the major is difficult because of its advanced courses or the sheer number of requirements. Its introductory course could be easy. The major is the whole, and the introductory course is a part, just as the court system is the whole and the highest court is a part. A ranking of the whole doesn't guarantee the corresponding ranking for that part.
- C
This switches from racing cars to passenger cars. The passenger cars aren't individual racing cars within the group the premise ranked. Sharing some parts might make the comparison appealing, but it doesn't establish that success with one kind of car carries over to a different kind. That's a different mistake from applying the court system's ranking to one court in it.
- D
Related animals need not have nearly identical eating habits. But that is an inference from a relationship between two kinds of animal to a further similarity between them. We don't have an entire system being ranked and then one of its parts receiving the same ranking.
- E
A lower chance of immediate dismissal doesn't necessarily mean the best chance of winning. There may be other obstacles later in the case, and comparing two districts doesn't establish which is best among all possible districts. Those are problems with comparing outcomes and available options, not with transferring a whole system's ranking to one part.
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