Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 2 · Question 25

Question prompt

Marianne is a professional Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Weaken Questions

Stimulus Summary

Background - Marianne hums during professional chess matches, distracting her opponents Order - Stop humming or be disqualified! Marianne: I’m not aware of it, so it’s involuntary, so I can’t be responsible/disqualified for it!

Answer Anticipation

Marianne’s argument here has two parts. First, she argues that she isn’t aware of her humming, so it’s involuntary. Can you voluntarily do something that you’re not aware of? Arguably, no. While there is a jump here, it seems like a valid one. Let’s be aware that an answer might undermine this connection, but it seems unlikely. Second, she argues that her humming is involuntary, so she can’t be held responsible for it/disqualified for it. That isn’t a valid jump - there’s no rule that says you can’t be disqualified for an involuntary action. So anything that calls that into question will weaken her defense. Let’s head to the answers and look for something attacking this part of the argument.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The officials of chess Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The stimulus is about Marianne’s humming during a match, so this answer is out of scope.
  2. B
    Many of the customs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    There’s no discussion of amateur chess matches, and they’re not relevant here, so this answer is out of scope.
  3. C
    Not all of a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    So tempting! This answer seems to undermine the first part of the argument. However, Marianne argues that she’s not aware of her humming, so it’s involuntary. In other words, she assumes that all things you are unaware of are involuntary. This answer reverses that - not all involuntary actions are things of which the person is unaware. That doesn’t affect the argument, as it’s still possible that the reverse is true and all things one is unaware of are involuntary! It’d be like if we said, “All lawyers are rich.” You couldn’t weaken that by saying, “Not all rich people are lawyers.”
  4. D
    A person who hums Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer suggests that an involuntary action can be controlled by someone who engages in it, and thus their failure to do so can mean they’re responsible for that action. This undermines Marianne’s argument that she’s not responsible for involuntary humming, making it the correct answer.
  5. E
    Not all of Marianne's Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    But some are, and thus the humming could potentially serve as grounds for her disqualification.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 25%
  4. D Credited 67%
  5. E 1%

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