PrepTest 147, Section 4, Question 9
Cereal advertisement: Fitness experts say that regular exercise(49 more words not shown)
The argumentation in the advertisement(5 more words not shown)
- Ainfers a cause(4 more words not shown)
- Bpresumes, without providing(10 more words not shown)
- Cinfers that a(24 more words not shown)
- Ddraws a conclusion(13 more words not shown)
- Einfers that some(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe these people like routines. Breakfast is part of the routine, and exercise is another part. Eating cereal could go along with regular exercise without being what makes someone exercise. The same pattern might appear among people who eat oatmeal every morning.
The advertisement then moves from cereal generally to Fantastic Flakes specifically. We haven't been told whether this particular brand has anything special going for it. More fundamentally, buying it doesn't establish that I'll start exercising. The experts' claim about exercise gives the advertiser a desirable destination, but where is the evidence that this cereal takes me there?
What we’re looking for
For the flaw question, the clearest problem is that missing cause-and-effect connection. The study finds two habits together; the advertisement treats adopting one as a route to the benefits of the other.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Adults who eat cereal exercise more regularly, but that doesn't show the cereal causes their exercise habits. A commitment to routines, for example, could explain both. If so, adding Fantastic Flakes to breakfast without adopting an exercise routine wouldn't put someone on the promised path to fitness. The advertisement turns an association into a reason to expect a causal benefit.
- B
The advertisement doesn't compare Fantastic Flakes' nutritional value with that of other cereals. Its stated reasoning runs through the association with regular exercise. We questioned the move to this specific brand, but that doesn't mean the advertiser has assumed it is more nutritious than every competitor.
- C
There are two mismatches. First, the study hasn't established that eating cereal contributes to the exercise or fitness result; it establishes an association. Second, the advertisement doesn't say cereal is the sole predictor of fitness. Calling something the most effective path isn't the same as saying nothing else matters.
- D
We aren't told the sample size. Perhaps the studies involved a large, well-chosen sample. The causal mistake would remain even then. We shouldn't replace the demonstrated problem with an unsupported guess that the researchers studied too few people.
- E
This describes assigning a group's collective characteristic to its individual members—for example, assuming that because a team is strong, some particular members must individually be strong in the same sense. The advertisement's error isn't that kind of group-to-member inference. It uses an observed relationship between habits to claim that taking up one habit will produce a benefit.
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