Logical reasoning PrepTest 112 · Section 4 · Question 25

Question prompt

The judgment that an 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

Flawed Parallel Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

Great works are the only sign of greatness
Thus - Greatness is just an assessment of past works, and you can’t then predict future greatness

Answer Anticipation

This is a weird argument to wrap our heads around, so let’s instead focus on the logic of it to see the structure that we can look for in the answer.
The argument here starts with a strong statement - great works are the only sign of greatness (If you diagrammed this, great! However, there are no other conditional statements, so there’s no need to do so. If it helps you understand the stimulus, then it’s worth it, though).
From there, it moves on to a conclusion that more or less restates that conditional - determining greatness is just looking at great works that have already been created. That also has a temporal element to it - “known works” - that the rest of the conclusion plays off of, saying that past greatness doesn’t provide a basis for predicting future (or unknown) works.
While the past can’t predict the future, it also provides some basis for predicting future work. The past is related to the future, even if things can change. So while it would be a flaw to say that a great artist will always create great works, it’s also a flaw to say that an artist having created great works tells us nothing about the potential for future great works.
Let’s find an answer that follows a similar pattern to conclude that the past has no bearing on the future.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The only way of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This argument starts with “the only” way to know something, as the stimulus did. It then moves on to conclude something that more or less restates this, relying on a temporal element (“has displayed”). From there, it continues to say that past symptoms provide “no prediction” about future symptoms, which is the same extreme conclusion as the stimulus. This answer has the same temporal flaw and structure as the stimulus, so it’s the correct answer.
  2. B
    Although colds are very Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    This argument doesn’t have the same temporal element in the conclusion, nor does it state that something is “the only” way to measure another.
  3. C
    Someone who has a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The conclusion here does have a temporal element, but the premises are all of a different type than those in the stimulus, so this answer is incorrect.
  4. D
    The viruses that cause Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    There’s no premise here that one thing is “the only” way to measure another.
  5. E
    Unless a person displays Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    There’s no temporal element in the conclusion here, allowing us to eliminate it.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 73%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 12%
  4. D 5%
  5. E 6%

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