PrepTest 139, Section 4, Question 16
Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which(44 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(6 more words not shown)
- Aoffers as a(15 more words not shown)
- Binfers that some(13 more words not shown)
- Cinfers that just(17 more words not shown)
- Dtakes a condition(20 more words not shown)
- Erelies on the(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A salesperson can want the commission and still tell the truth.
“Always” initially makes me pause. Couldn't there be a salesperson who puts the customer's needs ahead of the biggest commission? But let's grant the premise and examine what follows. Even if every salesperson steers customers toward the most profitable product, that doesn't make every claim about that product inaccurate.
What we’re looking for
Imagine that the product paying the best commission really is a high-quality product. A salesperson could accurately describe that quality, recommend it, and collect the commission. The motive and the truth could coexist. The flaw question asks us to identify the author's unsupported jump from who is making the claim, and why, to whether the claim is false.
Working the answers
- A
The premise is about steering customers toward products with high commissions. The conclusion is about making inaccurate claims. Those are different statements, as our truthful salesperson shows. The argument gives a bad reason for its conclusion, but it doesn't simply repeat the conclusion as its own support.
- BCorrect
The author rejects the claims because they come from salespeople with a financial incentive to promote the products. That incentive might give us a reason to check their claims carefully. It doesn't establish that the claims are inaccurate. We need information about the products, not just the motives of the person recommending them.
- C
The premise explicitly says all salespeople steer customers toward their highest commissions, and all salespeople in these stores work on commission. Applying those statements to the relevant salespeople is not the unsupported step. The problem comes afterward, when the author adds that their product claims must be inaccurate.
- D
The author isn't giving one condition that ensures a result and then treating it as required for that result. The author uses the commission arrangement to infer inaccuracy, but nothing establishes that arrangement as sufficient in the first place. D doesn't describe the missing connection between motivation and truth.
- E
The author doesn't rely on an expert's statement about a subject outside the expert's field. In fact, the author rejects the salespeople's claims. There is no cited authority whose expertise is being stretched to support the conclusion.
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