PrepTest 130, Section 4, Question 18
Despite the efforts of a small minority of(64 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(11 more words not shown)
- Atries to establish(14 more words not shown)
- Bfails to exclude(10 more words not shown)
- Cpresumes that simply(17 more words not shown)
- Dignores the possibility(17 more words not shown)
- Eblurs the distinction(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Most graduate students do not even know about the union effort. Perhaps a few students in one department have been talking about it while other departments have heard nothing. The people who do know are a smaller group, and most of that smaller group are skeptical.
That is not most of the university's graduate students.
Suppose there are 100 graduate students, 30 know about the effort, and 20 of those oppose it. Most of the informed group oppose it, but that gives us only 20 opponents out of 100. We still do not know what the other 70 would think once informed.
What we’re looking for
The argument nevertheless says the majority obviously disapprove and uses that claim to recommend against unionizing. For the flaw question, my objection is that we have not established the views of the majority. We should look for an answer exposing how the author treats that uninformed group.
Working the answers
- A
The author does not appeal to a long-standing practice. An argument saying “We have never had a union, so we should keep things that way” would fit A. This argument instead relies on its claim about how many students oppose the current attempt.
- B
Explaining why the informed students disapprove would not tell us how many of all the graduate students disapprove. Whatever motivates the known opponents, we still lack the opinions of the large uninformed group. B does not address that gap.
- C
The author does not simply argue that unfamiliar ideas must be bad. The stated rationale is that a majority disapprove. The error is treating the information about awareness and the informed minority as sufficient to establish that opposition, which E describes more precisely.
- D
Other advantages of unionizing might be worth considering in deciding what the students should do. But the argument's immediate rationale is the claim that most students disapprove, not an established finding that a union would be ineffective. D does not explain why the evidence fails to establish the claimed majority opposition.
- ECorrect
Being unaware of the effort gives us no affirmative approval, but that is different from actively disapproving. The author effectively groups people who have not approved with people who oppose and calls the result majority disapproval.
In our example, the 70 uninformed students are not 70 more opponents. They might favor the union, reject it, or remain undecided after learning about it. Counting their lack of approval as opposition produces the unsupported majority claim.
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