The right answer is E.Premise: The year 1917, 1937, 1956, 1968, 1979, and 1990 are all notable for the occurrence of both popular uprisings and near-maximum sunspot activity.
Premise 2: During heavy sunspot activity ----> a sharp rise in positively charged ions in the air people breathe ----> known to make people anxious and irritable.
Conclusion: Sunspot activity ---->likely trigger popular uprisings
A:
Premise: watch flight pattern of birds----> attempt to predict the outcome of future events
Conclusion: the events themselves often matched the predictions--->the birds were probably responding to some factor that also influenced the events.
Clearly A is wrong. A does not ascribe the predictions to the information picked up when the flight patterns of birds were watched. In addition, the chain of correlation does not exist in the premise in A as it is in the argument to be mimicked.
B:
Premise: Martha, Sidney, and Hilary are the city’s three most powerful politicians, and all three graduated from Ridgeview high School.
Conclusion: Although Ridgeview never had a reputation for excellence, it must have been a good school to have produced three such successful graduates.
B is wrong as well. The conclusion in the argument to be mimicked is based on the premises provided. The conclusion in B does not derive logically from the premise provided.
C:
Premise: Unusually cold weather last December coincided with a rise in fuel prices.
Premise: When it is cold ---> people use more fuel to keep warm--->prices rise.
Conclusion: Therefore if prices are high next winter, it will be the result of cold weather.
Close but not the right answer. The conclusion does not establish categorically that high rise in fuel prices are caused by cold weather. The conclusion is rather a prediction that high prices next winter will be caused by cold weather. What if next winter does not witness unusually cold weather? Secondly, we need the conclusion to suggest that rise in fuel prices is probably caused by cold winters.
D:
Premise: Taking regular diets that include most veggies ---> healthiest people.
Premise: Specific substances in vegetables ---> help the body fight disease.
Conclusion: vegetables should be part of everyone’s diet.
Just as in C, D does not establish a correlation between taking regular diets made of vegetables and healthy people, instead it makes a recommendation that veggies should be part of everyone's diet. D is wrong.
E:
Premise: corner offices-----> more windows than other offices ---> exposure to natural light
Premise: exposure to abundant natural light---->makes people more alert.
Conclusion: Corner offices---> probably makes managers most productive
Correct. This argument rightly mimics that in the main argument above. The conclusion also establishes a probable correlation between corner offices and the most productive managers. It also supported by the premises provided in the argument.