PrepTest 127, Section 2, Question 15
If Agnes's research proposal is approved, the fourth-floor(56 more words not shown)
The argument's reasoning is flawed(3 more words not shown)
- Apresumes, without providing(11 more words not shown)
- Bfails to consider(13 more words not shown)
- Cpresumes, without providing(11 more words not shown)
- Dfails to consider(17 more words not shown)
- Epresumes, without providing(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If Agnes's proposal is approved, the fourth-floor lab must be cleaned out. That gives us one guaranteed route to the cleaning, not necessarily the only route. Perhaps another approved project would also use that lab, or it could be cleaned for an unrelated reason.
Immanuel has a different arrangement: if his proposal is approved, he stays on the second floor. The passage doesn't say only one proposal can succeed. Keep the two conditions separate rather than treating them as competing options.
The important restriction comes next. Only proposals the director supports will be approved. So the director's support is required. But why would it be enough? Imagine approval requires ten people's agreement, with the director being one of them. A proposal could have that person's support and still be rejected by the others. Or there could be a separate requirement about the quality of the proposal.
What we’re looking for
The author knows the director supports Agnes and jumps to the result that follows if her proposal is approved. That skips the missing step: has she actually obtained approval? For the flaw question, look for the possibility that support is only one requirement and her proposal could still fail.
Working the answers
- A
We don't need to compare the labs' sizes to identify the problem. The passage gives us what happens if each proposal is approved. The unsupported move concerns whether the director's support establishes approval, not whether one floor has a larger lab.
- BCorrect
A supported proposal could still be rejected. The rule excludes approval without support; it doesn't promise approval whenever support exists. Until Agnes's approval is established, the author cannot rely on the cleaning requirement triggered by that approval.
- C
The director could support one proposal enthusiastically and the other reluctantly. The argument doesn't depend on equal enthusiasm, and equal enthusiasm wouldn't establish that either proposal met every requirement for approval.
- D
Immanuel's desire for a larger lab doesn't establish whether Agnes's proposal will be approved. We are also explicitly told where Immanuel will continue working if approved. A possible preference for another room doesn't identify the mistake leading to the conclusion about the fourth floor.
- E
Other labs could be adequate for Agnes's work. Perhaps the seventh-floor lab would also have enough space. The given condition still says the fourth-floor lab must be cleaned if she is approved. We accept that rule and question whether its approval condition has been met; we don't need to assume no other room could serve her research.
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