skiingforthewknds wrote:
Here is the OE...
Explanation: The evidence in the stimulus is that A (poverty) leads to B (bad diet), while the conclusion is that “not A” (not being poor) leads to “not B” (a good diet). This is not a logical conclusion based on the evidence. By forming the contrapositive of the first premise, we could logically conclude that if you have a good diet, then you are not in poverty. NOTE: The phrase “leads to” in the explanation of the conclusion above can be confusing. We are told that a good diet is crucial, which is like saying that it is necessary. This does NOT mean that a good diet guarantees non-poverty. Instead, non-poverty guarantees a good diet. Therefore, anyone who is not poor has a good diet (“if not A, then not B”), even though the good diet came before the rise out of poverty. It’s like saying that taking the GMAT is a crucial step for going to business school, which translates into “if you want to be in business school, then you must take the GMAT.”
In the correct choice, the evidence comes after the word “because”: If a bank acted improperly (A), then it advertised on the Internet (B). The conclusion, found at the beginning of the answer, is that proper banks (not A) do not advertise on the Internet (not B). As in the stimulus, we are given “if A then B” as evidence, and “if not A then not B” as an (illogical) conclusion. Note that the conclusion is in the beginning of the argument, while the conclusion in the stimulus is in the second sentence. This difference is irrelevant.
(A) We are told that a weed killer with Zorphon will lead to sick pets, and therefore, if you don’t want sick pets don’t get a weed killer with any chemicals. In other words the evidence is if A (weed killer with Zorphon), then B (sick pets); the conclusion is if not B (not sick pets), then C (get weed killers without ANY chemicals).
(B) The evidence here is that A (unnecessary expenditures) has led to B (rising deficit). The conclusion advises against ANY policies of the last administration, not just unnecessary expenditures.
(C) This argument merely says that a particularly policy – granting discounted tuition to students who have only recently lived in the state – should be changed. There is no cause-and-effect argument, as there is in the stimulus.
(E) The evidence is that people who drive to work drive less on the weekends than people who take public transportation to work. This does not set up a clear cause-and-effect argument, as the stimulus does. Furthermore, it then discusses reducing the number of people who drive to work when they could take public transportation, which is a subset of the first group discussed. Thus, this argument is not parallel to the stimulus.
Actually I find the "Correct answer D" is NOT parallel to the reasoning line of the argument in the stem. I agree with the OE that the reasoning line of the stem is:
∵ A leads to B ∴ not A leads to not B
which is illogical, of course.BUT, let's look at choice D:
Anyone looking to secure a home mortgage these days must avoid banks that advertise their low rates on the Internet, because
all the banks that have recently been investigated for improper banking procedures
have used the Internet to run ads that promote unrealistically low rates.
Premise: all the BAD banks use Internet ads
Conclusion: avoiding all the banks using Internet ads, can make people avoid all bad banks.
Think it thoroughly,
D is actually logical and well-founded. Suppose there are ABCDEF 6 banks in the market, ABC are the 3 bad guys (which according to the premise all use Internet ads) and two good guys, DE, also use the Internet ads. By avoiding all the banks that advertise on the Internet, people of course can successfully avoid all the bad guys. So this answer choice is flawless in reasoning.