PrepTest 125, Section 4, Question 8
The university's purchasing department is highly efficient overall.(13 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(13 more words not shown)
- AThe employees at(37 more words not shown)
- BThe outside audit(29 more words not shown)
- CThis supercomputer is(22 more words not shown)
- DLiterature critics have(21 more words not shown)
- EPassing a driving(23 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe a few excellent employees are carrying everyone else. An efficient purchasing department doesn't have to contain twelve equally efficient people. Some staff members could work slowly while others pick up the slack. The department could still get its work done very well overall.
Think about a group project that earned an A even though one member contributed almost nothing. The project succeeded; that doesn't mean every person did excellent work. A great sports team can likewise include weaker players. The whole's success doesn't establish the same quality in each part.
What we’re looking for
The parallel-flaw question asks for that specific move: start with a claim about the whole, then assign that property to every component. Keep track of the direction. An argument about individual members leading to a conclusion about their group would run the other way.
Working the answers
- A
This starts with the workers' youth and inexperience and predicts longer waits for customers. We could question whether those traits necessarily produce slow service, but that isn't our mistake. It doesn't start with a quality of the restaurant overall and conclude that each worker has that quality.
- B
This moves in the wrong direction. The evidence concerns deficiencies in each employee; the conclusion concerns the department as a whole. Our argument starts with an efficient department and concludes that every employee is efficient. Both arguments involve a group and its members, but the premise and conclusion have traded places.
- CCorrect
The supercomputer takes the place of the purchasing department: it is the whole with an impressive quality. Its individual components take the place of the department's employees. Then the answer assumes that each component must have the same outstanding qualities as the computer overall. But it could contain ordinary components that work exceptionally well together. Its overall price and sophistication would not prove that each component was the best or most expensive available.
- D
This also goes from the parts to the whole. The critics praise every chapter, and the conclusion calls the book excellent. To match the original, we would need the opposite starting point: the book is excellent, so every chapter must be excellent. We can't reverse the actual argument just because it uses the right kinds of pieces.
- E
This gives a requirement for having the job. If passing the test is a condition of employment, each employee has to meet that condition. That's different from observing a quality of the department's overall performance and assuming it belongs to every employee. E supplies the rule that connects the job with the individual qualification.
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