Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 3 · Question 14

Question prompt

If citizens do not Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

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

Main Point Questions

Stimulus Summary

If people in a democracy don’t vote, then a whole bunch of bad things happen. Even if one vote won’t matter, that’s a bad attitude. (Analogy about theft.)

Answer Anticipation

This is a weird stimulus, in that none of the statements really present a conclusion. They’re each unsupported claims being made that all seem to point in the same direction. When that happens, we should figure out what that direction is that they’re all pointing in, and treat that as the implied conclusion.
Digging in, the argument starts by claiming that bad things happen when people in a democracy don’t vote. It then moves on to show that this applies to individuals, since even though a single vote probably won’t swing an election, if that attitude is prevalent, then democracy is in trouble.
It ends with an analogy about theft, which we can throw out, as it definitely isn’t the main point of the argument (analogies will essentially never be the conclusion).
So what are we left with? A whole bunch of reasons that failing to vote in a democracy is bad. Let’s find an answer that aligns with that overall point.

Answer choices

  1. A
    People in a democracy Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    Right off the bat, we get an answer that aligns with the direction of the argument and is thus the implied conclusion. According to the stimulus, if people don’t vote, bad things happen. That supports the view that people should vote (to avoid those bad things), so this is the correct answer.
  2. B
    Dishonest acts and failure Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The argument treats dishonest acts as analogous to not voting, but that doesn’t mean that the two are “equally” damaging - they could be similarly damaging, even if they’re a bit off.
  3. C
    There is a risk Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    There’s no discussion of imitation, just multiple people doing the same act. That could happen without one person imitating another.
  4. D
    A single person's vote Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The stimulus notes that individual acts are insignificant in the cases noted, so this answer runs counter to the argument.
  5. E
    Large–scale dishonesty and neglect Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Other societies? The stimulus is about voting in a democracy, so this answer is out of scope in talking about nondemocratic societies.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 68%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 6%
  5. E 20%

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