Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 3 · Question 21

Question prompt

If the law punishes 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

Flawed Parallel Reasoning Questions / Sufficient & Necessary Questions

Stimulus Summary

Law punishes littering → Obligation to provide trash cans
~Law punishes littering
Therefore - ~Obligation to provide trash cans

Answer Anticipation

When a Flawed Parallel Reasoning question has conditional logic, there’s a good chance that the flaw is going to be a Sufficient/Necessary flaw.
Here, the conditional is established, and then a second premise states that the sufficient condition isn’t present. From that, it concludes that the necessary condition is absent, as well. That’s an illegal negation, so let’s find an answer that does the same thing.

Answer choices

  1. A
    If today is a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The second premise here establishes that the necessary condition is present, not that the sufficient condition is absent. This answer is an illegal reversal, not an illegal negation.
  2. B
    Jenny will have lots Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    This answer introduces a temporal element (“yet”), so it features a different flaw.
  3. C
    The new regulations will Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Similar to (A), this answer establishes the presence of the necessary condition, so it features an illegal reversal, not an illegal negation.
  4. D
    In the event that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Flight late → Miss meeting

    ~Flight late

    Therefore - ~Miss meeting

    This argument establishes a conditional, then states that the sufficient condition is missing. It concludes that the necessary condition is missing, as well, so this answer features the same illegal negation as the stimulus.
  5. E
    When the law is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer establishes a conditional, and then that the necessary condition isn’t present. From that, it concludes that the sufficient condition isn’t present. That’s not a flaw - that’s a valid application of the contrapositive.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 10%
  2. B 11%
  3. C 4%
  4. D Credited 68%
  5. E 7%

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