| Critical Reasoning Butler: June 2026 |
| June 25 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
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CR 1 Space Enthusiast: The fact that the government has ignored space science is reprehensible. In the past five years the current administration has spent less than 2.5 billion dollars on promising missions to explore the outer planets and understand the fundamental properties of our universe and the origins of life.
Politician: Your claims are erroneous and absurd. The current administration has allocated over 4 billion dollars for exactly the sort of scientific space missions you claim we do not support!
The apparent contradiction in the claims of the space enthusiast and the politician could best be resolved if which of the following was true?
A. Many space missions require billions of dollars and, often, decades of development and flight before returning any useful scientific data.
B. Politicians often select space missions for funding based not on the mission's potential scientific return but rather on an assessment of the mission's appeal to the public sense of imagination and adventure.
C. Without government funding, projects as complex as space missions to explore the outer planets are unlikely to ever come to fruition.
D. Often the budgetary allocations assigned to one agency or project are instead called upon to fund emergency needs of a different agency or project.
E. Many politicians support space exploration very strongly, albeit sometimes for selfish reasons ranging from creating jobs in their voting districts to seeking exciting ways of inspiring the public
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CR 2 Justin: Under current state law, employers must provide worker’s compensation insurance, which provides income to employees who cannot work due to injuries sustained at the workplace, to all full-time employees. This form of insurance is vital in protecting workers from financial ruin in the event they are suddenly unable to work.
Bharti: I disagree with your assessment. The high premiums employers are forced to pay for worker’s compensation insurance force many of them out of business, thereby serving to increase the state’s unemployment rate. Since unemployed people are statistically unlikely to carry health insurance, the state-mandated worker’s compensation scheme actually renders workers more vulnerable to financial devastation in the event of bodily injury.
Which of the following, if true, should Justin cite in order to respond most effectively to Bharti’s counterargument?
(A) In addition to carrying worker’s compensation insurance, most employers in the state also provide health insurance for full-time employees.
(B) Patients without health insurance and who have no money typically receive inferior treatment at hospital emergency rooms.
(C) People are statistically more likely to sustain debilitating injuries at the workplace than elsewhere.
(D) The state agency that compensates injured workers under the current insurance scheme is financially able to pay all foreseeable claims.
(E) Many workers file fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, and state regulators often fail to detect such fraud.