Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 3 · Question 19

Question prompt

On a certain day, 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

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Phenomenon - Swift Airlines cancelled 9 flights
Ordinary explanation - The scheduled plane had mechanical issues
Problem with explanation - It’s unlikely that 9 planes had mechanical issues
New explanation - Something else probably caused at least some of the cancellations

Answer Anticipation

This argument falls into a common pattern - Phenomenon/Explanation. However, it’s an interesting variation of that pattern - it brings up a problem with the explanation and concludes that something else must explain at least some of the phenomenon.
Let’s start there - the argument concludes that mechanical issues can’t explain all of the cancellations. If we’re looking for an assumption made by the argument, we can often find it by figuring out how that conclusion could be wrong.
So if it’s unlikely that mechanical problems would affect nine different planes, how might it be that all of the cancellations here could be from mechanical problems? Well, it’s possible that all of the cancellations were for the same one or two planes - it’s possible, after all, that a single plane had multiple scheduled flights in a given day.
Since the argument is assuming that isn’t the case, it’s assuming that the planes weren’t scheduled for more than one of the canceled flights. If they were, then the argument falls apart. Let’s find that as an answer choice!

Answer choices

  1. A
    More than one or Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer reflects the assumption of the argument. If all nine canceled flights had the same 1-2 planes scheduled, then mechanical failure is well within a possible explanation based on the stimulus. As such, this is a necessary premise.
  2. B
    Swift Airlines has fewer Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The relative number of mechanical problems is out of scope, as what matters is how many problems are likely in a given day. The stimulus has already established that that number is 1-2, so this answer isn’t a necessary premise.
  3. C
    Each of the canceled Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The length of the flight is out of scope of the reason for the cancellation, without a specific note tying explanations for the cancellations into the length of flight.
  4. D
    Swift Airlines had never Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Swift’s history of cancellations doesn’t tell us anything about the reason for those cancellations.
  5. E
    All of the airplanes Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    While this answer does suggest an alternative explanation (something tied to the airport instead of the planes), it doesn’t need to be true for the argument to work. Even if the flights were split up between airports, there could be a non-mechanical explanation for the cancellations.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 77%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 14%
  5. E 4%

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