Logical reasoning PrepTest 104 · Section 4 · Question 1

Question prompt

Politician: Governments should tax 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

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Must Be True Questions / Principle Questions

Stimulus Summary

Harmful substance available to general public → Government tax to discourage use

Answer Anticipation

Principle (Must be True) questions provide you with a principle and task you with finding an answer that describes a situation where it applies. In general, that principle will be stated as a conditional (or, sometimes, you’ll get two conditionals). We should get the judgment in the necessary condition, and then find the answer that establishes the sufficient condition for that judgment is met as a premise before concluding the judgment.
Here, the “any” indicates a sufficient condition, and the “should” is indicative of the judgment we should ensure is in the necessary condition. Luckily, the “should” is already in the necessary condition if we use “any” as the sufficient indicator!
There is a bit of a trick to the diagram here, though. The way that the principle is phrased, the necessary condition is split up around the sufficient condition. The judgment is that the government should use a tax to discourage use, and the condition under which that should happen is when there is a harmful substance available to the general public.
With that diagrammed out, we can head to the answers and find one that lines up with that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The tax on products Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The tax here is meant to deal with the consequences of a substance, not to discourage its use.

  2. B
    The tax on certain Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Here, there are studies showing that the tax won’t discourage use - “demand will not be affected.”

  3. C
    The tax on a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    The pesticide here is harmful to humans and implicitly available to the general public (since a tax can incentivize them to buy a different pesticide). That meets the sufficient condition of the principle, and the tax here is, again, to incentivize the use of a different pesticide - in other words, to discourage the use of this harmful pesticide. This answer conforms to the principle in the stimulus, so this is the correct answer.

  4. D
    The tax on domestically Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Here, a tax isn’t raised, so it doesn’t conform to a principle that establishes a sufficient condition for a tax to be raised.

  5. E
    The tax on products Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Here, a tax is lowered to encourage innovation in the use of a harmful substance. The principle deals with implementing a tax to discourage use.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 8%
  2. B 3%
  3. C Credited 88%
  4. D -100%
  5. E 0%

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