PrepTest 148, Section 4, Question 23
YXK is currently the television network with the(27 more words not shown)
The flawed reasoning exhibited by(15 more words not shown)
- ASoccer players suffer(43 more words not shown)
- BTeachers at our(41 more words not shown)
- CThe Olson Motor(29 more words not shown)
- DIn this city(34 more words not shown)
- EFalling Fast is(48 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The most-watched show could be on a different network. YXK has the most viewers overall, but another network might have one enormous hit surrounded by shows that attract much smaller audiences. YXK could win the network comparison without owning that individual hit.
Think of a team with the largest total payroll. Its highest-paid player needn't be the highest-paid player in the league. A rival could pay one star more while spending much less on everyone else. The ranking of the teams doesn't settle the ranking of their top players.
What we’re looking for
For the parallel flaw, I'd look for the same move: a group leads other groups on some measure, one member leads within that group, and the argument declares that member the leader everywhere. We need that unsupported jump from a group's ranking to an individual's ranking.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Soccer players lead the university's other athletes in average leg injuries, and Linda leads within the soccer group. The argument then declares Linda the university-wide leader. Soccer players take YXK's role; Linda takes Bliss's role.
But imagine a basketball player who has suffered more leg injuries than Linda, while the other basketball players have had very few. Soccer could still have the highest average. Just as another network could have the biggest individual show, another sport could have the most-injured individual athlete. The group-level comparison doesn't establish the member's overall ranking.
- B
This begins with a leading group, but then gives Janna the city-wide award lead as a premise. It doesn't infer that broad individual ranking from her leading position within the school. Instead, the conclusion changes from winning awards to being the best teacher, and it puts Janna at this school without establishing that she teaches there. Those are different gaps from the one we need to match.
- C
Read 'the three best-selling' carefully. Olson makes the country's top three models, so the country's best-selling model is already among Olson's models. If the Decade sells more than every other Olson model, it must be that national leader. This isn't merely saying Olson has the highest total sales. The premise identifies the top individual models, making the conclusion valid rather than repeating the network's flaw.
- D
This uses the top and bottom salaries to infer the average salary. The middle of each group matters too. Imagine three police officers earning $100,000, $41,000, and $41,000, and three firefighters earning $90,000, $90,000, and $40,000. Both police extremes exceed the corresponding firefighter extremes, but the firefighters have the higher average.
That's a real gap, but it runs from individual extremes to a group average. Our argument runs from a leading group's overall result to an individual member's supposed lead over everyone else.
- E
The same film appears throughout: its box-office earnings lead the country, and a general tendency connects that sort of success with appearing in many theaters. There is no leading group followed by a leading member within it. To match our argument, we'd need that additional group/member step, not merely one item being described by two measures of success.
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