Soru

Zorluk: KolayWeaken

Match each argument below to the piece of new evidence that most directly weakens its conclusion.

  • Mayor Smith's popularity must be declining because attendance at her town hall meetings is much lower this year.All town hall meetings are now broadcast live online, allowing citizens to easily watch from home.
  • City roads are more dangerous than rural roads because a significantly larger total number of car accidents happen in the city.City drivers collectively drive millions more miles per day than rural drivers do.
  • The new gym will be highly profitable because it is opening right next to a busy organic grocery store.Customers of the organic grocery store strongly prefer outdoor activities and rarely purchase indoor gym memberships.
  • The herbal tea cures insomnia, as all participants in a recent study reported better sleep after drinking it for a week.The participants in the study were simultaneously given prescription sleep medication by the researchers.

Cevap

Mayor Smith matches to online broadcasts; City roads match to more miles driven; New gym matches to outdoor preference; Herbal tea matches to prescription medication.
Each correct match directly exploits a specific logical flaw in the argument's reasoning. By introducing alternate explanations, distinguishing totals from rates, attacking unwarranted business assumptions, or introducing confounding variables, the new evidence demonstrates that the original conclusions do not necessarily follow from their premises.

Adım Adım Çözüm

1
Analyze the argument regarding Mayor Smith's popularity.
The argument assumes that low physical attendance at meetings definitively proves low popularity.
Identifying the unstated assumption is the first step to finding a weakness.
2
Find the evidence that provides an alternative reason for the low attendance.
The fact that meetings are now broadcast online explains the low physical attendance without requiring a drop in popularity.
An alternate explanation successfully weakens a correlative claim.
3
Analyze the argument regarding city roads and find the structural flaw.
The argument confuses a high total number of accidents with a higher rate of danger. The evidence that city drivers drive millions more miles addresses this total vs. rate flaw.
Understanding the difference between absolute numbers and proportions is crucial to weakening statistical arguments.
4
Analyze the gym and herbal tea arguments to find their respective weakening evidence.
The gym argument is weakened by evidence that the adjacent store's customers dislike indoor gyms. The tea argument is weakened by the introduction of an alternate cause (prescription medication).
Each piece of correct evidence successfully severs the assumed logical link between the given premises and the final conclusions.

Anahtar Kavram

Evaluating Arguments: Weakening
Bu soruyu puanla

Konular