Logical reasoning PrepTest 117 · Section 4 · Question 5

Question prompt

Barr: The National Tea 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

Cause & Effect / Weaken Questions

Stimulus Summary

NTA: Tea is showing up in more ads/articles, so it must be getting more popular.

Answer Anticipation

The question stem asks us to weaken Barr’s argument, not the argument of the National Tea Association, so we should be sure to focus on her argument.
Her argument concludes that tea is no more popular now than it used to be, and this is based on a survey. Whenever there’s a survey done, we should check to see if there’s a sampling flaw, and if there’s a correlation/causation flaw.
The latter we can quickly determine isn’t present - there’s no causality in the conclusion.
For the sampling flaw, it’s noted that the survey was done at “numerous” stores over 20 years, so it’s definitely not of a sample that’s necessarily too small, or over a time period that’s too short. However, there’s no indication that this sample of stores is representative, and short of any other identifiable flaw in the argument, the correct answer is likely to present information that the stores in question might not represent stores overall.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The National Tea Association Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This information has no impact on the results of the Survey Group survey, so it has no impact on the argument. If we knew the results, then it would be in play.
  2. B
    A survey by an Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    More survey results can affect an argument, but the results here speak to something different than the one in the stimulus. There, the survey/conclusion is about tea’s popularity; this answer is about willingness to try new types of tea, which doesn’t speak to whether people are actually drinking it at higher rates.
  3. C
    The Survey Group is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    If we learned that the Survey Group was somehow biased, that may negatively affect the survey, though we’d still want to see more information about that bias actually influencing the results. However, there’s no indication of such bias here, so this answer has no effect on the argument.
  4. D
    The stores from which Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    If the stores are all in a small region of the country, then there’s reason to believe that they’re potentially unrepresentative of stores throughout the country. Since this answer calls the sample of the survey that serves as the only support for the conclusion, this answer weakens the argument.
  5. E
    Tea has been the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer might explain the increase in ads and articles about tea, but it doesn’t affect whether or not tea is more popular than it used to be, and it completely ignores the survey.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 88%
  5. E 1%

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