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Sub 505 Level|   Similar Reasoning|            
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mohnish104
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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television com 31 Oct 2013, 20:47
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C
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86% (01:48) correct 14% (02:03) wrong based on 740 sessions

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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television competes for their attention. When the television is on, communication between family members stops. Where there is no communication, family ties become frayed and eventually snap. Therefore, the only solution is to get rid of the television.

Which one of the following is most closely parallel in its reasoning to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?

(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.

(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.

(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.

(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.

(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity
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C
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VeritasPrepBrandon
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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television com 01 Nov 2013, 11:19
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Great question. Parallel reasoning questions, while relatively rare, tend to trip test takers up.

When asked a parallel reasoning question, I like to translate the stimulus into variables. Because the subject matter will be different for the answer choices, translating everything to variables helps me not get lost in the unrelated subject matter.

Question stimulus:
Conversation - X
Television - Y
Frayed family ties - Z
Y eliminates X, which causes Z. Z is undesirable; the only solution is to eliminate Y.

Answer choice C:
Engaging in sports - X
Watching Sports - Y
Health deteriorates - Z
Y eliminates X, which causes Z. Z is undesirable; the only solution is to eliminate Y.

No other answer choices matches. This kind of logic takes a while to get used to, but is very helpful once you develop the habit.

I hope this helps!!!
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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television com 22 May 2015, 03:26
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souvik101990
Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television competes for their attention. When the television is on, communication between family members stops. Where there is no communication, family ties become frayed and eventually snap. Therefore, the only solution is to get rid of the television.

Which one of the following is most closely parallel in its reasoning to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?

(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.

(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.

(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.

(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.

(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity.
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Answer is C ..
Logic is as below -
Once A happned , now B happening. Due to B , D is affecting . and due to D, E happens ..
So remove B.
Only answer C shows this pattern
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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television com 09 May 2018, 05:46
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C is the right answer here.It follows the similar reasoning.

souvik101990
Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television competes for their attention. When the television is on, communication between family members stops. Where there is no communication, family ties become frayed and eventually snap. Therefore, the only solution is to get rid of the television.

Which one of the following is most closely parallel in its reasoning to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?

(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.

(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.

(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.

(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.

(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity.
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Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television com 15 Oct 2024, 05:22
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mohnish104
Once people habitually engaged in conversation, now the television competes for their attention. When the television is on, communication between family members stops. Where there is no communication, family ties become frayed and eventually snap. Therefore, the only solution is to get rid of the television.

Which one of the following is most closely parallel in its reasoning to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?

(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.

(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.

(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.

(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.

(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity
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Original Argument of the author:

Problem:
People used to converse.
Now they watch TV and do not converse with family.
Without communication, family ties break.

Solution:
Only solution is to get rid of TV.

We need to find a similar argument.
TV has stopped conversation leading to breaking of families. It is claimed that the only solution is to get rid of TV.

(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.

Contemporary economic pressures have minimized leisure time leading to jeopardized friendships. No solution is offered. Hence, this is not similar to our original argument.

(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.

No discussion on TV hampering radio time and no discussion on getting rid of TV. This is not similar to our original argument.

(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.

Spectator sports has pushed out engaging in sports leading to health deterioration. Only solution is to eliminate spectator sports.
This is just like our original argument.
Correct.

(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.

The argument doesn’t tell us how not tailoring the day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule is harming people. This is not similar to our original argument, especially not since we have an option that does take care of this aspect too.

(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity.

How suburban shopping is harming us is not given and there is no call to ban it. This is not similar to our original argument.

Answer (C)

Discussion on Mimic Questions: https://youtu.be/dHU17plF2mc
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