A telephone poll conducted in two states asked respondents whether the

Question

A telephone poll conducted in two states asked respondents whether their homes were cold during the winter months. Ninety-nine percent of respondents said their houses were always warm during the winter. The pollsters published their findings, concluding that ninety-nine percent of all homes in the United States have adequate heating
With two states being a sample for a big nation like United States won't represent the climate for the whole nation, so i think option b

Which of the following most accurately describes a questionable technique employed by the pollsters in drawing their conclusion?

A. The poll wrongly ascribes the underlying causes of the problem.

B. The poll assumes conditions in the two states are representative of the entire country.

C. The pollsters conducted the poll by telephone, thereby relying on the veracity of respondents.

D. The pollsters didn’t visit respondents’ houses in person, so no measure of the temperature in a subject’s home was actually made.

E. The pollsters never defined the term “cold” in terms of a specific temperature.

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dhart · Answer

A telephone poll conducted in two states asked respondents whether their homes were cold during the winter months. Ninety-nine percent of respondents said their houses were always warm during the winter. The pollsters published their findings, concluding that ninety-nine percent of all homes in the United States have adequate heating
With two states being a sample for a big nation like United States won't represent the climate for the whole nation, so i think option b

gautamK0206 · Answer

The premise, talks about a survey that took place in just 2 states of the country. But the conclusion was made for the whole country. We can guess the flaw in the reasoning in the pre-thinking, that the assumption or the scaling of the results of the survey over the whole country.
Hence,  B. The poll assumes conditions in the two states are representative of the entire country.  is the right answer.

Vivek1707 · Answer

A. The poll isn't trying to explain why homes are warm or cold. So this is irrelevant.
B. Correct The poll covers only two states, but the conclusion applies to the entire U.S. The big assumption is that those two states are representative of the country.
C. Using a telephone poll may create a reliability issue, but that's a problem with the data collection, not the reasoning used to reach the conclusion.
D. Same idea: physically measuring temperatures might improve the study, but it doesn't address the main logical flaw.
E. Defining "cold" more precisely could improve the survey, but the bigger issue is the tiny/non-representative sample.

Minka99 · Answer

I think  B  is the correct answer. The conclusion states that  ninety-nine percent of all homes in the United States have adequate heating . Our task is to weaken this conclusion. That means we must directly weaken something from this conclusion. Answer B does just that. It states that the study only focuses on two states which cannot mean a correct representation of the entire country that is the US.

counterclash1 · Answer

Correct Answer: B

ARGUMENT ANALYSIS:
- Sample: Respondents in 2 states
- Conclusion: Applies to all homes in the United States (50 states)

FLAW:
- Generalizing from a non-representative sample. The conditions in 2 states may not mirror the rest of the nation.

OPTION EVALUATION:
- A: Irrelevant (no causes discussed)
 - B: CORRECT (identifies the scope shift from 2 states to the whole country) 
- C: Out of Scope (veracity/honesty is not questioned)
- D: Out of Scope (physical measurement not required)
- E: Minor distraction (definition of 'cold' is not the primary logical gap)

Bunuel · Answer

Princeton Review Official Explanation:

Here’s How to Crack It:

The question asks for a  questionable technique  used by the pollsters, so this is a flaw question.

You already know from the question stem that the argument has a serious problem. Your job is to figure out what that problem is. Begin by identifying the argument’s premises and conclusion. Then, use a gap in the reasoning to hone in on the assumption. Because this is a flaw question, be on the lookout for common reasoning patterns.

The word concluding in the last sentence of the passage gives away the conclusion:  ninety-nine percent of all homes in the United States have adequate heating . Why did the pollsters conclude this? Their findings were based on the results of  a telephone poll conducted in two states, in which ninety-nine percent of respondents said their houses were always warm during the winter .

Did you recognize the pattern of reasoning in this argument? Information about one group of people (the poll was conducted in two states) is used to make a claim about a much larger group (all households in the United States). This argument employs the sampling pattern. The standard assumption involved in the sampling pattern is that the sample is representative of the larger population.

Look for answers that call attention to this assumption.

A. The poll wrongly ascribes the underlying causes of a problem.

Underlying causes are out of scope. The pollsters ask whether people’s homes are cold. The reason they might be cold is irrelevant. Eliminate (A).

B. The poll assumes conditions in the two states are representative of the entire country.

This answer expresses the standard assumption involved in the sampling pattern. Nothing in the passage suggests that the households surveyed are representative of U.S. householders in general. Keep (B).

C. The pollsters conducted the poll by telephone, thereby relying on the veracity of respondents.

The information in this answer might betray a weakness in the pollsters’ methodology, but it isn’t a weakness in the pollsters’ reasoning. Eliminate (C).

D. The pollsters didn’t visit respondents’ houses in person, so no measurement of the temperature in a subject’s home was actually made.

Like (C), this answer describes a problem with the poll, not with the argument. Eliminate (D).

E. The pollsters never defined the term “cold” in terms of a specific temperature.

It’s true that the pollsters never defined the term “cold,” but does that represent a flaw in the pollsters’ reasoning? The flaw identified here concerns the poll itself, not the argument. Eliminate (E).

The correct answer is (B).

A telephone poll conducted in two states asked respondents whether the

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A telephone poll conducted in two states asked respondents whether the

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