Principle: If you sell an item that you know to be defective

From Powerscore:

Flaw in the Reasoning—PR,SN. The correct answer choice is (E)

The principle in this stimulus is conditional. If you knowingly sells a defective product to a buyer while telling the buyer that the product is sound, then you have committed fraud. We can diagram this relationship as follows:

Sufficient ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Necessary

Knowingly sell a defective product
..... + ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... :arrow: ..... Commit fraud
Tell the buyer that the item is sound

In the application, Wilton sold a defective bike to Harris, and told him the bike was in good working order. The application concludes that Wilton was guilty of fraud. Immediately, we should notice that the application was missing a portion of the sufficient condition. The application specifically stated that Wilton knew very little about the condition of the bicycle, not that he knowingly sold a defective product. Since the application was missing a portion of the sufficient condition, the necessary condition does not necessarily follow. Going into the answer choices, we know we are looking for something that describes this conditional error.

Answer choice (A): The principle states that if Wilton had knowingly sold the defective product as sound, he would have been guilty of fraud. The nature of a conditional relationship indicates that if the sufficient condition occurs, the necessary condition must also occur. The conditional relationship as described in the principle does not leave room for the seller to attempt to repair the defect. Since this answer choice does not directly relate to the principle, it cannot be the correct flaw.

Answer choice (B): Similar to answer choice (A), this answer choice describes a consideration outside of the conditional relationship. As long as the bike was “sold” the exact sale price is irrelevant.

Answer choice (C): Errors in use of a term occur when an author (or two speakers) uses a key term in significantly different ways. In this stimulus, there is only one meaning of the word defective—to be somehow faulty, or not work in the way described. There is no alternate or different meaning.

Answer choice (D): The conditional relationship concerns the knowledge of the seller, not the buyer. It is the seller’s mental status that contributes to the fraud. Even if the buyer had knowledge of the fraud, it would not change the result of the seller’s actions.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. One key component of the sufficient condition is the idea of knowingly selling a defective item. In the application, Wilton lacks knowledge of the condition of the bike. Selling a defective bike as functional if one lacks justification for thinking it is in good working order is not the same as knowingly selling a defective bike.