PrepTest 145, Section 4, Question 12
Several movie critics have claimed that this movie(45 more words not shown)
The argument is flawed in(2 more words not shown)
- Ainfers that a(16 more words not shown)
- Bfails to consider(19 more words not shown)
- Crelies on a(7 more words not shown)
- Dattacks the persons(11 more words not shown)
- Efails to consider(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A bad study doesn't make its conclusion false. Imagine an unreliable election poll predicts that one candidate will win. Once we discover that the poll was badly conducted, we have a reason not to trust its prediction. We don't suddenly know the other candidate will win. The first candidate could still win, even though this poll failed to establish that result.
The same problem appears here. The critics rely on deeply flawed survey data, so their evidence may not support their claim about the movie's effects. But the author goes further and calls the claim untrue. We need a reason to reject the claim itself, not merely its current support.
What we’re looking for
The author also says the accusation could harm the moviemakers' reputations. We might ask how people will react, but that smaller question doesn't remove the central flaw. For this question, focus on the leap from “your evidence is bad” to “your claim is false.”
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The author treats the lack of satisfactory evidence as proof that the critics' claim is false. Those are different conclusions. Flawed data can leave us unsure whether the movie inspires irresponsible behavior; they don't establish that it does not.
- B
The argument doesn't compare how damaging true and false accusations are. It says this particular accusation is untrue and potentially harmful. Whether a true accusation might be even more harmful doesn't address the unsupported judgment that this one is false.
- C
The author criticizes the survey data rather than using them to establish the movie's effects. We aren't even told that an unrepresentative sample is the specific defect. A flaw in the critics' evidence is not automatically the flaw in the author's response to them.
- D
The criticism concerns the evidence the critics used. The author doesn't dismiss their claim by attacking their character or personal circumstances. An attack on the quality of a survey addresses the support for the argument, even if the author then draws too strong a conclusion from that attack.
- E
This reverses the direction we need. E concerns moving from a false conclusion to a judgment about the evidence behind it. Our author moves from flawed evidence to a judgment that the conclusion is false. The missed possibility is that bad support could accompany a true claim.
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