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Difficulty: HardParallel Flaw

During the last decade, the number of industrial accidents at factories implementing the Alpha safety protocol decreased by 40 percent. Meanwhile, the number of industrial accidents at factories using the Beta safety protocol decreased by only 15 percent. Consequently, factories using the Alpha protocol must now experience fewer industrial accidents than those using the Beta protocol.

Which one of the following arguments contains a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to the one exhibited in the argument above?

  1. Last year, the budget for the municipal library grew by 30 percent, while the budget for the city recreation center grew by only 10 percent. Thus, the municipal library must currently receive a larger total amount of funding than the recreation center.Answer
  2. B
    Because factories implementing the Alpha safety protocol experienced a 40 percent reduction in accidents, while Beta factories experienced only a 15 percent reduction, the Alpha protocol is clearly a superior method for improving workplace safety.
  3. C
    Since the city council mandated a 20 percent budget increase for the municipal library, library attendance has risen sharply. The recreation center, which received no such mandate, saw stagnant attendance. Thus, budget increases cause higher attendance.
  4. D
    The overall operating budget for the city's public services division decreased by 15 percent this year. Because the municipal library is a crucial component of the public services division, the library's individual budget must have decreased by 15 percent as well.
  5. E
    Any municipal department that secures a 20 percent budget increase will be able to hire additional staff. The municipal library hired additional staff this year, which proves that the library secured a 20 percent budget increase.

Answer

The argument comparing the percentage growth of the library and recreation center budgets to conclude which receives more total funding.
The correct answer exhibits the exact same logical error as the stimulus: it uses a comparison of percentage changes (a 30 percent increase versus a 10 percent increase) to justify a conclusion about absolute quantities (which entity receives a larger total amount of funding). Like the stimulus, it completely ignores the necessary baseline figures (the starting budgets of the library and the recreation center).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to identify the premises and the conclusion.
Premise 1: Alpha accidents decreased by 40%. Premise 2: Beta accidents decreased by 15%. Conclusion: Alpha now has fewer total accidents than Beta.
Deconstructing the argument structure is necessary to isolate the abstract logical pattern.
2
Identify the logical flaw in the stimulus.
The argument confuses percentages with absolute numbers. It assumes that a larger percentage decrease guarantees a smaller final absolute number, ignoring the fact that the starting baseline numbers for Alpha and Beta are unknown.
Parallel flaw questions require matching the exact type of logical error.
3
Evaluate the answer choices to find the one that replicates this specific structural flaw.
The correct option takes two percentage changes (30% vs 10% growth) and uses them to draw a conclusion about absolute numbers (total funding), ignoring the initial budget baselines.
This confirms the structural match regardless of the topic.

Key Concept

Confusing Percentages with Absolute Numbers
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Topics

Parallel Flaw

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