PrepTest 94+, Section 4, Question 24

Difficulty:

A movie studio's script readers discard all proposed scripts that are not submitted by agents, and they discard all scripts that are incorrectly formatted. So a script that is submitted by an agent and formatted correctly will not be discarded by the studio's script readers.

Question

Which one of the following exhibits a flawed pattern of reasoning that most closely parallels that in the argument above?

To be accepted, entries in the essay contest must be postmarked by the deadline and accompanied by a completed entry form. March 21 was the deadline. Thus, an entry that is accompanied by a completed entry form but postmarked March 22 will not be accepted.

If your kitchen is well organized and you are a good cook, the meals you prepare will be delicious. The dinner Jon prepared last week was not at all tasty, so his kitchen must not be well organized.

If Bob starts exercising daily, he will improve his fitness level. His fitness level will also improve if he quits smoking. So if he refuses to exercise and continues to smoke, his fitness level is not going to improve.

The police are allowed to ticket any parked car that does not have a parking permit. They are also allowed to ticket any parked car whose parking permit has expired. Thus, the police are going to ticket Ruta's car, for her parking permit has expired.

Most dogs that have attended obedience classes respond correctly to basic commands, but only some are able to perform advanced tricks. Thus, any dog that has attended obedience classes and performs advanced tricks will be able to respond correctly to basic commands.

Raise Hand ✋

Explanations

Scriptreaders

Script readers

The argument tells us the following:

(1) If not submitted by an agent, then the script gets discarded.

(2) If not correctly formatted, then the script gets discarded.

Note, that's two ways to guarantee your script gets tossed.

Then, the argument mistakenly concludes, if a script is submitted by an agent and formatted correctly, then it won't be discarded.

The flaw pattern here is that the conclusion negates both premises' sufficient conditions and then makes an inference. We know neither what happens when a script is submitted by an agent, nor what happens when a script is submitted that's formatted correctly. We simply know what happens if either of those things don't occur.

For instance, imagine a script gets submitted that's formatted correctly, and by an agent, but an agent who's a total hack that the whole industry knows to ignore. It may well get tossed. Same issue for the other premise: imagine Ari Gold submits your script, but it's a garbage script—it's probably headed for the trash can.

It's a parallel flaw question, so I need an answer choice that presents two sufficient conditions that have the same necessary condition. Then, I need to conclude that doing the opposite of each of those sufficient conditions will produce the opposite of the necessary condition. Let's go find it.

Nah. This is valid logic. Can't be the answer.

No. This is flawed, but it's a different flaw. A valid conclusion would have said, "Since the dinner Jon prepared last week was not at all tasty, either his kitchen isn't organized, he's not a good cook, or both."

Perfect. Our two conditions are "If Bob starts exercising daily," and "If he quits smoking." Either of these is sufficient to "improve his fitness level." Then, the conclusion negates both sufficient conditions—if he won't exercise and he keeps smoking—his fitness won't improve. This is a spot-on parallel flaw.

Nope. This is flawed, too. But for a different reason. The conclusion here jumps from "can" to "will," which we aren't allowed to do. But that's not the flaw pattern in the original passage.

No. Also flawed, but differently so. If +51% of all obedience-trained dogs respond to basic commands, but only some obedience-trained dogs perform advanced tricks, then it's possible that those "some" dogs fall in the minority of dogs who respond to basic commands—those groups don't have to overlap based on the information provided.