Logical reasoning PrepTest 112 · Section 4 · Question 1

Question prompt

A government ought to 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 Sufficient Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Free speech is good for national health, which is good for the people, so the government should protect it.

Answer Anticipation

When dealing with Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions, it’s frequently best to start by looking at the conclusion to see if any new concepts are brought up. When that’s the case, in order to make the conclusion follow logically from the premises, the correct answer needs to connect that new concept to something established in the premises.
Here, the conclusion is about what the government ought to do, but the premises never prescribe any actions from the government. As such, the correct answer is going to need to establish that the government should do something - in this case, protect and encourage free speech.
That latter concept is how the argument does connect to the premises - they’re about free speech. What the argument proves is that free speech is in the best interest of people. So to connect this with the conclusion, we should look for an answer establishing that the government should protect and encourage anything that’s in the best interest of its people.

Answer choices

  1. A
    An activity that is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    According to the premises, free speech is in the best interests of the people. This answer says that it therefore should be protected and encouraged by a nation’s government - as the conclusion states. Since this answer justifies the conclusion on the basis of the premises offered, it’s the correct answer.
  2. B
    Basic, inalienable rights of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The stimulus never establishes free speech as a basic and inalienable right of the people, so this answer doesn’t necessarily apply.
  3. C
    An activity that helps Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    There’s no indication that free speech helps a government to govern, so this answer is out of scope.
  4. D
    A government ought to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Free speech is established as conducive to a healthy nation, but it isn’t established that that’s in the interests of this government - maybe they want an unhealthy nation that they can rob of resources!
  5. E
    Universal human rights that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Similar to (B), there’s no indication that free speech is a universal human right (though it is in the best interest of the people), so this answer is similarly out of scope.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 89%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 6%
  5. E 1%

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