PrepTest 128, Section 3, Question 14
Forty to 60 percent of students report, in(62 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- AThe argument relies(24 more words not shown)
- BThe argument introduces(14 more words not shown)
- CThe argument presumes,(20 more words not shown)
- DThe argument takes(21 more words not shown)
- EThe argument infers(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The survey suggests plagiarism is common: 40 to 60 percent of students admit to it. We might wonder whether some students still hide it even in an anonymous survey, but we don't need to settle that concern to examine the reasoning. Accept the reported pattern.
The important evidence is that students who plagiarize are more likely to engage in later professional misconduct. The author then predicts that reducing plagiarism will reduce misconduct.
What if the same underlying willingness to be dishonest produces both behaviors?
Imagine a student who is willing to cheat whenever an opportunity appears. A school could prevent that student from plagiarizing by making copied work easy to detect. But if the student remains willing to deceive, a later opportunity to falsify research or commit business fraud could still be attractive. Preventing the school behavior wouldn't necessarily remove the underlying cause of the workplace behavior.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for the flaw. The association is real evidence of a connection between the groups, but it doesn't establish that plagiarism causes the later misconduct. We need an answer that identifies that unsupported causal step.
Working the answers
- A
Having plagiarized doesn't establish that a student is lying when anonymously admitting it. Even if some survey responses were inaccurate, the central inference would still need examination: why should reducing one associated behavior reduce the other? A attacks the reports without identifying that gap.
- B
The premises and conclusion concern the relationship between academic plagiarism and professional misconduct. The author doesn't abandon one subject and provide evidence about an unrelated one. The problem is the kind of relationship inferred, not a switch to a different debate.
- C
The author treats plagiarism as a cause of misconduct, but doesn't need it to be the only cause. If plagiarism were one of several causes, reducing it might still reduce misconduct. “Only factor” therefore describes a stronger assumption than this conclusion requires.
- D
The difference between groups isn't simply taken for granted. Researchers have found that students who plagiarize are more likely to commit later professional misconduct. That comparison is explicitly supplied as evidence. What isn't established is the causal interpretation of it.
- ECorrect
The argument takes an association between plagiarism and later misconduct as evidence that reducing plagiarism will cause a reduction in misconduct. The shared underlying tendency offers another explanation of the association. If that tendency produces both behaviors, removing opportunities to plagiarize need not change what happens when new opportunities for misconduct arise later.
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