Letter to the editor: I was shocked to learn that Judge Mosston was

Question

Letter to the editor: I was shocked to learn that Judge Mosston was convicted of criminal assault, but I disagree with my fellow citizens who believe that he should be forced to resign. I have played cards with Judge Mosston for many years, and he has always shown himself to be fair toward me and our fellow cardplayers. Our judicial system simply cannot afford to lose any just and fair judges.

The reasoning in the letter is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

(A) confuses duties specific to legal professionals with the responsibilities of private citizens

(B) insists upon a distinction between "fair" and "just" which cannot plausibly be maintained

(C) makes a general claim about an individual's professional competence based on an unrepresentative sampling of the individual's behavior

(D) treats the violent crime of criminal assault as if its consequences were no more serious than winning or losing at cards

(E) asserts a conclusion based on popular opinion rather than on argumentation

AdarshSambare · Answer

context: the author argues Judge Mosston should not resign because in personal card games he has been “fair,” and concludes he is a just and fair judge professionally.
prethinking: gap between informal personal behavior (cards) and professional judicial conduct. small, biased sample used to judge broader competence.
elimination:
A: not about confusing duties vs citizens; it’s about evidence quality → no
B: no real distinction issue between fair and just → no
C: yes — uses limited personal experience (card games) to generalize about professional ability as a judge → matches flaw
D: not minimizing assault’s seriousness; it’s ignoring it, not comparing to cards → no
E: not based on popular opinion → no
 answer: C

guddo · Answer

Letter to the editor: I was shocked to learn that Judge Mosston was convicted of criminal assault, but I disagree with my fellow citizens who believe that he should be forced to resign. I have played cards with Judge Mosston for many years, and he has always shown himself to be fair toward me and our fellow cardplayers. Our judicial system simply cannot afford to lose any just and fair judges.
 
 The reasoning in the letter is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

The writer concludes that Judge Mosston should not be forced to resign because he has behaved fairly while playing cards.  The flaw  is that fairness in a private card game is weak evidence for  fairness or competence as a judge .

(A) confuses duties specific to legal professionals with the responsibilities of private citizens

Wrong. The argument does not confuse legal duties with private-citizen duties. It uses private behavior as evidence about professional suitability.

(B) insists upon a distinction between "fair" and "just" which cannot plausibly be maintained

Wrong. The argument does not depend on a distinction between “fair” and “just.”

(C) makes a general claim about an individual's professional competence based on an unrepresentative sampling of the individual's behavior

Correct. The writer judges Mosston’s fitness as a judge based on personal experience playing cards with him, which is not representative evidence of his judicial fairness or professional competence.

(D) treats the violent crime of criminal assault as if its consequences were no more serious than winning or losing at cards

Wrong. The writer may underweight the assault conviction, but the specific reasoning flaw is not that the crime is treated as equivalent to a card-game result.

(E) asserts a conclusion based on popular opinion rather than on argumentation

Wrong. The writer actually rejects popular opinion and gives an argument, though the argument is weak.

Answer: (C)

yc168 · Answer

OE for reference:

Overview:  
The letter writer concludes that Judge Mosston should not be forced to resign and offers two considerations that, taken together, are supposed to support that conclusion. First, within the circle of people he plays cards with, Judge Mosston has always shown himself to be fair. Second, the judicial system cannot afford to spare any just and fair judges.

The Correct Answer:

C  The letter writer's main conclusion is based in part on the premise that the judicial system cannot afford to lose any just and fair judges. As mentioned in the "Overview," in order for this premise to support the main conclusion, the letter writer must infer from the other premise—that within the circle of people he plays cards with, Judge Mosston has shown himself to be fair—that Mosston is a just and fair judge. So the letter writer has inferred a conclusion about Judge Mosston's professional competence based on his behavior within a circle of people who play cards together. But a person's behavior in a circle of cardplayers is an extremely narrow, and thus unrepresentative, sample of that person's behavior. In particular, it is not a reliable indicator of how that person discharges his or her professional duties. (C) describes this weakness.

The Incorrect Answer Choices:

A  The reasoning in the letter relates what might be called a responsibility of private citizens—to be fair when playing cards—to a duty specific to a certain legal professional—for a judge to be just and fair in judging a case. But even though the reasoning relies on a questionable inference from the first of these to the second, there is no indication that it confuses the two.

B  The reasoning in the letter treats "fair" and "just" as distinguishable attributes of judges, but it does not insist on drawing a specific distinction between them. Therefore, with respect to the letter writer's reasoning, the question of whether a particular distinction between "fair" and "just" can be plausibly maintained does not arise.

D  The letter writer's conclusion is not based on an attempt to minimize the crime of assault by comparing it to winning or losing at cards. Instead, the conclusion is based on a claim that Judge Mosston is a just and fair judge, as revealed by his behavior as a cardplayer. That is, the issue of card playing is introduced to argue that Judge Mosston is just and fair, not to minimize the seriousness of Judge Mosston's crime. Since the reasoning does not make the comparison that (D) describes, it is not vulnerable to criticism on that point.

E  To the extent that there is something like "popular opinion" involved here, it is the opinion of the letter writer's fellow citizens, and their opinion is that Judge Mosston should be forced to resign. The argument, far from basing its conclusion on that opinion, draws a conclusion that is directly opposed to that opinion. So the reasoning in the letter is not vulnerable to the criticism in (E).

Letter to the editor: I was shocked to learn that Judge Mosston was

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Letter to the editor: I was shocked to learn that Judge Mosston was

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