June 2007 PrepTest, Section 3, Question 25
By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024
Type: Flaw
Difficulty:
Explanations
This confuses sufficient for necessary. The anthropologists say that coping with diverse natural environments was necessary to survival. The author “disproves” that by citing a (flimsy) example where a species had that ability but died. If the anthropologists claimed it was sufficient, then yes, an example where the condition was met but did not cause the predicted outcome (survival) would disprove the anthropologists. However, that’s not what they said—they said it was necessary, not sufficient.
A
Bingo. Just as predicted.
B
No, the author doesn’t say that at least one other species must have had the same characteristic. The author uses that other species to “disprove” the anthropologists.
C
No, that one species didn’t survive.
D
This isn’t the flaw, because of what I mentioned above. If the anthropologists said it was sufficient, then the author would be correct. But the anthropologists didn’t say that—that is the flaw.
E
No, the issue is that it was necessary.
Passage
Some anthropologists argue that the human species could not
Question 25
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticis