| Critical Reasoning Butler: January 2025 |
| January 13 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 Looking to bolster the domestic luxury cars industry, a member of parliament has introduced a bill that would levy additional taxes on the import of luxury cars. The reasoning behind the bill is that the taxes will raise the prices of foreign luxury cars above those of the luxury cars by their domestic counterparts, prompting consumers to buy luxury cars produced domestically instead.
Which of the following statements, if true, provides the strongest evidence that the reasoning put forward by the member of parliament is flawed?
A. Projected increases in the price of international shipping will increase the cost of importing luxury cars.
B. Each year, the imports of luxury cars account for thirty percent of the total sales amount from luxury cars sold in the country.
C. Most of the wholesalers currently dealing only in domestic luxury cars cannot afford to import foreign ones.
D. Some wholesalers of imported luxury cars are willing to pay the additional taxes for importing luxury cars.
E. Regular upkeep of imported luxury cars is already significantly more expensive than that of domestic luxury cars.
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CR 2 People tend to evaluate the importance of a public issue according to its salience, meaning people are more likely to think that an issue is important if it comes to their attention frequently and in an aggressive manner. By volume of discussion and due to selection bias, social media emphasizes issues that are relatively frivolous but eye-catching over relatively more serious but non-sensational issues.
It can be concluded on the basis of the statements above that, if they are true, which of the following is most probably also true?
A. The language used on social media to describe relatively frivolous issues is sensationalist and fails to accurately respect the traditional boundaries of news coverage.
B. Those who discuss public issues on social media tend to overestimate the importance of relatively frivolous but eye-catching issues compared to serious but non-sensational ones.
C. Discussion on serious but non-sensational issues is neglected on social media in favor of discussion on frivolous but eye-catching issues.
D. None of the issues concerning other people that are discussed on social media is so salient in people’s minds as their own personal issues.
E. Social media is the medium that focuses people’s attention most strongly on frivolous issues.