PrepTest 158, Section 3, Question 14
Some freelance journalists sell their work to magazines(28 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(15 more words not shown)
- ASome high school(16 more words not shown)
- BMost school board(26 more words not shown)
- CSome students prefer(23 more words not shown)
- DSome principals are(22 more words not shown)
- ESome teachers who(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Some freelancers aren't self-respecting writers. Does that tell us that some self-respecting writers aren't freelancers?
No. We have to keep track of which group the evidence actually identifies. Some freelancers sell to magazines with lax standards. Since no self-respecting writer does that, those particular freelancers aren't self-respecting. That much follows.
But imagine every self-respecting writer is a freelancer. The other freelancers—the ones who sell to lax magazines—aren't self-respecting. Both premises would still be true, yet the conclusion would be false: there would be no self-respecting writers outside the freelance group.
What we’re looking for
For this parallel-flaw question, a short outline can help. Let F mean freelancers, L mean people who sell to lax magazines, and S mean self-respecting writers. We have some F in L, no S in L, and then the mistaken conclusion that some S aren't F. The evidence actually establishes some F aren't S. Look for the answer that makes the same switch between the two groups.
Working the answers
- A
The first two statements line up: high school teachers are the freelancers, teaching biology is selling to lax magazines, and kindergarten teachers are the self-respecting writers. But the conclusion changes the pattern. It says biology isn't taught by all teachers.
To copy the original mistake, A would need to conclude that some kindergarten teachers aren't high school teachers. It doesn't. Matching the premises isn't enough when the conclusion takes a different route.
- B
This uses a majority claim about school board members who were teachers, then applies a rule about those former teachers' preferences. Its conclusion concerns how many board members prefer administration. The original starts with some members of one group and wrongly asserts that some members of a different group lie outside the first. B doesn't make that same switch.
- CCorrect
Students fill the freelancers' role. Preferring history to mathematics fills the role of selling to lax magazines. Calculus Club members fill the self-respecting writers' role.
Some students have the preference, and no club member has it. That establishes that some students aren't club members. Instead, C concludes that some club members aren't students. All the club members could be students, with the history-preferring students simply outside the club. That is exactly the same mistake and the same kind of counterexample.
- D
Principals correspond to freelancers, harsh disciplinarians to sellers to lax magazines, and debate advisers to self-respecting writers. But D draws the conclusion the premises actually support: some principals aren't advisers. Those harsh principals cannot be advisers because no adviser is harsh.
The original would have needed the reverse claim about some advisers not being principals. D keeps the groups in the supported order and therefore avoids our flaw.
- E
This starts with popular teachers who allow early departures, then excludes coaches from allowing departures before three. Even if we treated “early” as before three, the conclusion would identify some of those popular teachers as noncoaches. It wouldn't claim that some coaches are outside the popular-teacher group. There's also a change from “early” to “before three” that the answer doesn't justify. Neither feature matches the original's specific mistaken switch.
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