| Critical Reasoning Butler: November 2025 |
| November 17 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 Exit polls, conducted by an independent organization among voters at five polling locations during a recent election, suggested that the incumbent mayor—a Democrat—was going to lose the election by a wide margin. But, in fact, by the time the final results were tabulated, the incumbent had won the election by a narrow margin.
Which of the following, if true, would explain the apparent contradiction in the results of the exit polls?
(A) The people chosen at random to be polled by the independent organization happened to be Democrats.
(B) The exit poll locations chosen by the independent organization were in predominantly Republican districts.
(C) The exit polls were conducted during the afternoon, when most of the districts’ younger voters, who did not support the incumbent mayor, were at work.
(D) The incumbent mayor ran on a platform that promised to lower taxes if elected.
(E) An earlier poll, conducted the week before the election, had predicted that the incumbent mayor would win.
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CR 2 According to a consumer research group survey, the majority of kitchen appliances purchased in the United States are purchased by men. This appears to belie the myth that women spend more time in the kitchen than men.
The argument is flawed primarily because the author _____________.
(A) fails to differentiate between buying and using
(B) does not provide information about the types of kitchen appliances surveyed
(C) depends on the results of one survey
(D) does not give exact statistics to back up his case
(E) does not provide information on other appliances such as washers and dryers