Logical reasoning PrepTest 103 · Section 3 · Question 8

Question prompt

Grasses and woody plants Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Errors in Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

Problem - Banks erode
Solution - Plant things that prevent erosion
Problem with solution - Mowing the plants leads to 1) the roots rotting and 2) rodents moving in
Conclusion/Solution for problem with solution - Bring in rodent predators

Answer Anticipation

This stimulus is a bit convoluted, but using one of our common patterns to understand it can help. This stimulus is a variation of the Problem/Solution argument - one that brings up a problem with a solution and attempts to solve those problems.
Specifically, the argument is about preventing the erosion of banks. The solution - planting certain trees - leads to its own problems. Specifically, it leads to two problems - the roots of the solution plants rotting, and rodents moving in.
To address these problems, the argument concludes that rodent predators should be brought in. While this might address the one problem with the solution - the rodents - it doesn’t do anything to address the other problem - the rotting of the roots.
In treating the rodent predators as a complete solution to the issues raised when it only addresses one, this argument is committing a Partial Solution is Complete Solution flaw, so let’s find an answer describing that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Two events that merely Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Any causality in the stimulus is directly established (e.g., “as a result”), not inferred because of co-occurrence, so this Correlation/Causation flaw answer is incorrect.

  2. B
    A highly general proposal Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The conclusion here puts forward a pretty specific proposal - bring in predators to eradicate rodents.

  3. C
    The conclusion is no Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer describes a Circular Reasoning flaw, but the conclusion is about a topic that isn’t mentioned in the rest of the stimulus (rodent predators), so this flaw can’t apply.

  4. D
    One possible solution to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    While this answer does deal with problems/solutions, it doesn’t describe the flaw related to those in this argument. The predators aren’t treated as the only way to address the rodents, just one way. The problem is that it ignores the rotting roots.

  5. E
    An action that would Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    This answer deals with problems/solutions, and it does so correctly. Bringing in rodent predators would address one cause of the problems associated with piles of clippings, but it wouldn’t address the rotting roots, and so it’s not a complete solution.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 11%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 2%
  5. E Credited 83%

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