Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 2 · Question 26

Question prompt

Smoking in bed has Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Bizarro / Paradox Questions

Stimulus Summary

Smoking in bed - Primary cause of home fires Past 20 years - Significant decline in smoking Past 20 years - No decline in number of home fire fatalities

Answer Anticipation

As with all Paradox questions, we should start by clearly defining the paradox. Here, we learn that smoking in bed is a primary cause of home fires, and there’s been a significant decline in cigarette smoking. That might lead you to believe that the number of fires have declined, but, in reality, there hasn’t been a decline in the number of home fire fatalities. But wait - first off, there’s a shift there. A decline in smoking should lead to a decline in fires, but this stimulus talks about home fire fatalities. So first off, any answer that plays with that distinction might resolve the paradox. Other than that, since this is a Bizarro question, there are many potential ways to explain the discrepancy here. This question does fall into a common pattern, however - a change is introduced (decline in smoking), and an expected outcome isn’t seen. When that happens, correct answers tend to bring up something else that changed that can lead to the unexpected outcome.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Compared to other types Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer addresses the shift we noted. If home fires from smoking don’t cause a lot of damage, then they weren’t a primary source of fatalities and thus a decline in smoking and thus smoking fires wouldn’t be expected to lead to a decline in fatalities.
  2. B
    Home fires caused by Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    This answer suggests that home fires caused by smoking in bed should be more dangerous since they tend to break out after people are asleep and thus not aware that the house is burning down! This makes the paradox worse, as it’d be expected that these fires would have a high fatality rate. This answer is therefore correct in this Bizarro Paradox question.
  3. C
    Smokers who smoke in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    If the people who quit smoking aren’t the ones who are causing house fires from falling asleep while smoking in bed, then a decline in smoking wouldn’t be expected to lead to fewer house fires.
  4. D
    An increasing number of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    This answer brings up another change that concurred with the decline in smoking. If kitchen fires have seen an increase in their fatality rate, then that could have made up for a decline in smoking-related fires.
  5. E
    Population densities have increased, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer resolves the paradox. Even if smoking-related fires decreased, each one - according to this answer - leads to more fatalities, on average. As such, those forces would balance out and lead to a smaller decline in fatalities than expected.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 30%
  2. B Credited 43%
  3. C 15%
  4. D 9%
  5. E 4%

Deeper help

Ask follow-ups on any step

Optional AI tutor mode will let you interrogate assumptions, compare answers, and drill weak patterns without leaving the page.

Human-written explanations stay primary; AI is an add-on when you want it.

Discussion

View all discussions Start a discussion