| Critical Reasoning Butler: September 2025 |
| October 14 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 The government has recently been severely criticized for its decision to block access to a few websites on which malicious information and photographs were being posted. The government has responded to this criticism by stating that
while it believes in freedom of speech and expression, this was an emergency and in such situations, you have to cut off the source of the problem.
In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
(A) The first describes a reaction to an action and the second describes an action taken in response to this reaction.
(B) The first is a criticism that the argument disagrees with; the second is the point of view that the argument supports.
(C) The first is the point of view of a group of people and the second attacks this point of view.
(D) The first provides a counterpoint to the argument’s conclusion; the second is that conclusion.
(E) The first provides the criticism of an action and the second provides justification for the necessity of taking that action.
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CR 2 There has been a sudden spurt in the cases of suicide amongst teenagers in Tango city. On investigation, a public interest group discovered that all of these teenagers had been listening to songs by an alternative rock group, The Demons, at the time of committing suicide. When the public interest group listened to the songs by this rock group, they were aghast to hear lyrics that encouraged people to kill themselves. Accordingly, the city mayor has decided to ban the sale and download of all alternative rock band albums in Tango city with immediate effect.
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?
(A) Songs with lyrics that encourage people to kill themselves can actually lead to people killing themselves.
(B) Alternative rock groups other than The Demons also contain lyrics that encourage people to kill themselves
(C) It is not required to impose a similar ban on movies containing large scale violence and bloodshed.
(D) If people don’t listen to songs by The Demons, they will not kill themselves.
(E) It is the responsibility of a mayor to protect the citizens of his city.