Logical reasoning PrepTest 101 · Section 2 · Question 9

Question prompt

Historian: Anyone who thinks Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Principle Questions / Strengthen Questions

Stimulus Summary

Judgment - Some of the regular people in Q were murderers
Situation - The regime of Q (made up of normal people) executed many people in pursuit of an unrealizable paradise

Answer Anticipation

Principle (Strengthen) questions will generally reach a judgment based on a situation, and the correct answer justifies that judgment based on the details of the situation.
Here, the judgment made by the Historian is that some of the regular people in Q were murderers. She never defines what makes one a murderer in the premises, though.
What is established is that people made up the regime of Q, and that regime executed a lot of people in pursuit of paradise - a paradise that turned out to be impossible (“unrealizable”).
So we’re looking for an answer that justifies the judgment based on these details:
Anyone involved in executing someone in pursuit of a goal that is unrealizable is a murderer.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The pursuit of paradise Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The Historian doesn’t conclude anything about justifiable murder, just whether something constitutes murder, so this answer is out of scope.

  2. B
    The pursuit of paradise Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    This answer would establish that the fanaticism of regime Q was justified. However, the conclusion is about whether those in regime Q committed murder, so this answer doesn’t help to justify the argument.

  3. C
    Execution in pursuit of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    This answer defines murder, and the details match up with what we know about the actions of the regular people who made up regime Q. As such, this answer justifies the conclusion that some of them committed murder, so this is the correct answer.

  4. D
    Fanaticism in pursuit of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The conclusion is about the regular people in regime Q, not the fanatics. Additionally, this establishes that the fanaticism was inhuman, but that doesn’t lead to the conclusion that they committed murder.

  5. E
    Enthusiasm in pursuit of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer establishes that the ordinary people in regime Q were fanatics, which, if anything, cuts against the argument that the ordinary people of regime Q stood separate from the fanatics. It also doesn’t connect to murder at all.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 13%
  2. B 2%
  3. C Credited 79%
  4. D 2%
  5. E 4%

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