Athletic director: Members of our sports team included, for the fall

Question

Athletic director: “Members of our sports team included, for the fall season, 80 football player and 40 cross-country runners; for the winter season, 20 wrestlers and 40 swimmers; for the spring season, 50 track-team members and 20 lacrosse players. Each tea athlete participates in his or her sports five days a week for the whole three-month season, and no athlete is on two teams during any one season. Therefore, adding these figures, we find our team sports program serves 250 different individual athletes.”

In drawing the conclusion, the athletic director fails to consider the relevant possibility that

A. athletes can be on more than one team in a single season
B. athletes can be on teams in more than one season
C. some of the team sports require a larger number of athletes on the team than do others
D. more athletes participate in team sports during one season than during another
E. an athlete might not participate in every one of the practice sessions and athletic contests in his or her sport

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The athletic director has clearly added up the 120 athletes active in the fall, the 60 athletes active in the winter, and the 70 athletes active in the spring. But while we know that the total of athletes for each season is composed of different individuals, there is nothing in the rules cited that would prevent athletes from being active in two or in all three seasons. So, the sum of 250 may include athletes that have been counted twice or three times. This is the possibility that has not been considered. Thus,  B is the correct answer.

A is incorrect. The athletic director has specifically ruled this out as a possibility. C is not the correct answer choice. This possibility is reflected adequately in the different numbers of athletes active in each sport. No oversight seems likely here. D is incorrect. Not only does the athletic director not overlook this, he or she has the figures to prove it. The last answer choice is also incorrect. The athletic director could say that the program has served an athlete even if that athlete has not participated to the fullest extent possible.

push12345 · Answer

Key point here that atheles participate is based on season.

What if same participants are good at multiple sports,i. e. They participate in one season for one game and in other season for other game.

B clearly states that
And so is answer

Give kudos if it helps

Posted from my mobile device

ENEM · Answer

the director states his conclusion-'team sports program serves 250 different individual athletes'
on the basis-that there are a total of 250 athletes and none of them will be playing in other teams

A. athletes can be on more than one team in a single season -  it is clearly stated that players will not be repeated in other teams.  eliminated  
C. some of the team sports require a larger number of athletes on the team than do others -  even if they do, it doesn't weaken the argument.  eliminated  
D. more athletes participate in team sports during one season than during another -  I almost picked this, but then even if they do, this doesn't harm the argument...  eliminated.  
E. an athlete might not participate in every one of the practice sessions and athletic contests in his or her sport-  this was another one that I almost picked...but it seemed too good to be true...the argument doesn't talk about practice sessions... eliminated.

hence by process of elimination answer is  B , i got lucky, I can't explain why B is right but I could tell why the other answers are wrong...

vaibhav1221 · Answer

The fallacy - The argument specifies that  no athlete participates in more than one event in ONE SEASON . The conclusion is about  ALL SEASONS (80+40+20+40+50+20 = 250) . Athletes that participate in one season might also be participating in some other season as well.  The duplication is not accounted for.

Straight and simple B.

Gmathub · Answer

Check video solution here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqs0_93RMHY

Thanks

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

The question is about flaw in the Reasoning and while reading the argument, we can observe that last two line of argument can provide the point to look into error of Reasoning. There is the possibility for the participants to participate in other season and thats why the total 250 individuals doesnot hold true

007Phoenix007 · Answer

The participants count is less than 250 which means a athletes have participated in more than one season. And since there is no restrictions in participating in different seasons(unlike option A which it clearly mentions that they cannot be two teams in one season),  B is the correct answer  as the rest of the options are like subset to the option B.

Athletic director: Members of our sports team included, for the fall

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Athletic director: Members of our sports team included, for the fall

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