PrepTest 131, Section 1, Question 20
Only experienced salespeople will be able to meet(24 more words not shown)
The pattern of flawed reasoning(17 more words not shown)
- AOnly on Fridays(22 more words not shown)
- BOnly music lovers(17 more words not shown)
- COnly oceanographers enjoy(23 more words not shown)
- DAs this tree(28 more words not shown)
- EOnly accomplished mountain(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Experience is required to meet the quota. That does not mean every experienced salesperson will meet it. Someone could have years of experience and still fall short because of a different problem.
Suppose an experienced salesperson becomes ill and misses work for treatment. Selling only half the quota would not erase that person's experience. Or perhaps the person lacks another skill the job requires. The argument wrongly treats failure to reach the outcome as proof that the required experience is absent.
What we’re looking for
For the parallel flaw, keep that direction precise: achieving the outcome requires a trait; someone fails to achieve the outcome; therefore, the person supposedly lacks the trait. The matching answer must make that same unsupported negative judgment.
Working the answers
- A
Permission to dress casually requires Friday. But employees are not required to dress casually every Friday; Hector could choose formal clothes and still go to work. The conclusion introduces whether he is going to work, which is not the requirement in the opening rule. To match the original more closely, the argument would need to infer that it is not Friday from someone's not dressing casually. A makes a different jump.
- BCorrect
Taking the class requires loving music, just as meeting the quota requires experience. Hillary is not taking the class, corresponding to the salesperson's failure to meet the quota. The conclusion then says she does not love music, corresponding to the conclusion that the salesperson lacks experience.
But Hillary might love music and live in New York while the class meets in Los Angeles. Not taking this class does not establish a lack of love for music, just as missing the quota does not establish a lack of experience. The rule, negative evidence, and negative conclusion all match.
- C
Enjoying the Atlantic in midwinter requires being an oceanographer. Gerald lacks that requirement, so the conclusion that he does not enjoy it follows from the stated rule. The original goes the other way: from failing at the outcome to lacking the requirement. C is sound and does not make that move.
- D
Finding a giant redwood requires being in a northern latitude. We have found a giant redwood, so the required location follows. That is a valid application of the rule. It does not use a failure to find a redwood to infer that we are outside a northern latitude.
- E
This also mistakes a requirement for a guarantee, so it deserves careful attention. Being accomplished is required to scale El Capitan. E starts by saying Michelle has that trait, then concludes she must be able to achieve the outcome. The original starts with failure at the outcome, then concludes the trait is missing.
To reproduce the original, E would need to say Michelle cannot scale El Capitan, so she must not be an accomplished climber. As written, its positive trait-to-outcome inference differs from the original's negative outcome-to-trait inference. B preserves the full pattern.
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