Critical Reasoning Butler: April 2025 |
April 17 | CR 1 | CR 2 |
_______________________________
CR 1 Two years ago, the human resources department at Harrison's Technologies had 175 sexual harassment cases open, a number that at that time led all companies in the sector. At that time, a typical claim took six months to process and clear. In response to this high number, the CEO's Advisory Team published a comprehensive set of guidelines for training employees in the identification and avoidance of behaviors that could constitute sexual harassment. At this writing, the human resources department has only sixty sexual harassment cases open. Clearly, the guidelines published by the CEO's Advisory Team were effective in reducing the occurrence of new sexual harassment claims at Harrison's Technologies.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?
(A) Two of the six members of the CEO's Advisory Team were found guilty of sexually harassing members of the secretarial staff
(B) New paperwork and procedure, also introduced two years ago, has allowed the human resources department at Harrison's Technologies to process and close almost all new claims of sexual harassment in less than one month.
(C) The human resources department at Anthony Information Industries, a principal rival of Harrison's with a similar number of employees, opened no new sexual harassment claims in the past year.
(D) Independent consultants using scientifically designed surveys have found that the majority of current employees at Harrison's Technologies are not properly educated on exactly what behaviors constitute sexual harassment.
(E) The majority of sexual harassment claims lead to the termination of employees found guilty; new employees hired to fill these positions need to be trained in the guidelines.
_______________________________
CR 2 Psychologist:
The obligation to express gratitude cannot be fulfilled anonymously. However much society may have changed over the centuries, human psychology is still driven primarily by personal interaction. Thus, the important social function of positively reinforcing those behaviors that have beneficial consequences for others can be served only if the benefactor knows the source of the gratitude.
The boldface portion plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
A. It is an illustration of a premise that is used to support the argument’s conclusion.
B. It is used to counter a consideration that might be taken to undermine the argument’s conclusion.
C. It is used to support indirectly a claim that the argument in turn uses to support directly the conclusion.
D. It is used to identify the social benefit with which t he argument is concerned.
E. It is the conclusion that the argument is intended to support.