Logical reasoning PrepTest 110 · Section 3 · Question 20

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Summary:
Metaphor 1 — Society is a body, with the leader as the head
Metaphor 2 — Society is a family
Metaphor 1 has more use in an authoritarian society, and it's prevalent in those societies
Conclusion — How popular a metaphor is depends on how well it matches a society's politics

Answer Anticipation:
The conclusion here is phrased in a way that hides the comparative nature of it, but we can rephrase it as—The more a metaphor is useful in a society's politics, the more popular it'll be.

With that conclusion rephrased as a comparative statement, we can start to look at the premises to see if the comparison is supported. And to do so, we should look at the two metaphors presented (society is a body; society is a family) along the two metrics compared in the conclusion (utility; popularity).

The premises do establish that the society—as—body metaphor is more useful in authoritarian nations than the society—as—family metaphor is. However, it doesn't establish that the former metaphor is more popular than the latter metaphor—just that it's popular ("is pervasive"). It's possible that the society—as—family metaphor is just as prevalent and thus the conclusion that the more useful metaphor will be the more popular metaphor isn't supported by this specific example. Let's find an answer that equates the popularity of these two metaphors thus weakening the comparative relationship in the conclusion.

Answer Explanation:
This answer establishes that the society—as—family metaphor is just as popular in authoritarian societies as the society—as—body metaphor is. Since the stimulus establishes that the latter metaphor has more political utility in authoritarian natures the example here would show metaphors with different utilities but the same popularity disproving the conclusion that utility determines popularity.

Key Takeaway:
Harder questions will hide what type of logic they're featuring in other language. As we saw here identifying the conclusion as comparative despite the lack of clear comparative language made it a lot easier to see what was missing from the premises.

Incorrect. This answer doesn't do anything to address the connection between utility and popularity, so it doesn't affect the conclusion.

Incorrect. Without discussing how useful it is in those societies, how popular it is there, and how that matches with other metaphors, this answer doesn't affect the conclusion.

Incorrect. Without knowing if these metaphors end up being useful and/or popular, this answer doesn't add (or subtract) anything from the argument.

Incorrect. Without knowing if it's useful there, or how its popularity compares to other metaphors, it's unclear what impact this answer has on the relationship discussed in the conclusion.