| Critical Reasoning Butler: February 2025 |
| February 19 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 When it comes to purity standards in the food industry, demanding the most exacting results that the best hygiene practices can achieve is unwise. Although contemporary hygiene practices can isolate and eliminate the most minute amounts of impurities, doing so is exorbitantly expensive, with respect to the improvement achieved. Thus, it would be more reliable to set standards by accounting for all current and future risks involved than by demanding the best hygiene practices
The argument given concerning the better way to set standards assumes that
A. at present, the food industry meets the standards established by public health authorities
B. the only impurities worth gauging are introduced by the food industry
C. all of the relevant risks posed by allowing different levels of impurities can be accounted for effectively
D. preventing vast quantities of impurities from entering the food supply chain is not expensive
E. minuscule amounts of some impurities can be toxic
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CR 2 Non-capitalist states appear to suffer economic collapse much sooner than do capitalist states. Historians theorize that
it is interventionism and destabilizing influences exercised by capitalist states that lead to non-capitalist states suffering economic collapse faster than capitalist states do. This theory is hard to verify directly, as it is difficult to pinpoint with any significant accuracy what punitive practices have been undertaken by capitalist states against non-capitalist ones. A detailed study of Cuba, a non-capitalist state, however, demonstrates that
much of the economic difficulty experienced by the nation arises from sanctions and trade embargoes placed by the USA, a capitalist state. This indicates that the historians’ theory has a firm basis in reality.
In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
A. The first describes a position opposed by the argument; the second presents evidence that undermines support for the opposed position.
B. The first describes a position opposed by the argument; the second states the argument’s main conclusion.
C. The first presents an explanatory hypothesis; the second states the argument’s main conclusion.
D. The first presents an explanatory hypothesis; the second presents evidence that supports alternative explanation.
E. The first presents an explanatory hypothesis; the second presents evidence that tends to support this hypothesis.