| Critical Reasoning Butler: May 2025 |
| May 18 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 The extract of the cacao leaves was considered a miracle cure-all in the 1800s. Doctors believed that a mixture of the extract and wine, if drunk regularly, could kill off parasitic infestations, destroy tumors, and revitalize living tissue.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the logic of the belief described above is flawed?
A. To make the cacao leaf extract safer to consume, it could be diluted with alcohol without weakening its desired effects.
B. Since tumors are living cells, the mixture would affect them in the same way that it would affect living tissue.
C. It cannot be presumed that the use of a particular medication is always appropriate.
D. If the suggested treatment were put into effect on a wide scale, healthcare costs would be lower than they are now.
E. Because consuming the cacao leaf extract would alter the consumer’s metabolism, a new diet would have to be designed for them to remain healthy.
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CR 2 The city of Dreaming has a population of 60,000 and only one home insurance provider, Endless Insurance. The city’s welfare department calculated that a homeowner earning the city’s median income of $60,000 a year could afford Endless Insurance’s median-priced home insurance coverage, which costs $7,000. The welfare department based this calculation on a 12 percent annual interest rate and on the assumption that Dreaming’s homeowners could only afford to allocate up to five percent of their respective incomes towards insurance.
Which of the following corrections of a figure mentioned in the above passage, if it were the only necessary correction, would lead to a new calculation indicating that even incomes below the median income would permit homeowners to afford Endless Insurance’s median-priced home insurance coverage?
A. The total population of the city of Dreaming is 57, 000.
B. The annual payment rate on Endless Insurance’s home insurance policies is 10 percent.
C. The median-priced home insurance offered by Endless Insurance costs $8,000.
D. The median income in the city of Dreaming was $55,000.
E. Dreaming’s homeowners can afford to allocate only four percent of their income towards insurance.