Logical reasoning PrepTest 117 · Section 4 · Question 7

Question prompt

Since empathy is essential 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 Necessary Premise Questions / Sufficient & Necessary Questions

Stimulus Summary

People willing to follow self-sacrificing moral code → Empathy
Therefore - Civilized society → Empathy

Answer Anticipation

While it doesn’t use the most common conditional language, this argument does feature conditional statements in that both sentences talk about a requirement for something. Requirements are necessary conditions, which is how we arrived at the diagram in our summary.
Also, many Strengthen with Necessary Premise questions feature new concepts in the conclusion, and this new concept needs to be tied into the premises. Here, “civilized society” is a new concept in the conclusion. So we should use our conditional diagram to figure out what concept from the premises needs to be connected to “civilized society” in order to make the argument work.
So what can we add to the premises to get the conclusion to hold? Well, both statements discuss “empathy,” so we’re not missing a connection there. Instead, we need to connect Civilized society to People willing to follow self-sacrificing moral code. And since we need Society in the sufficient condition to match up with the conclusion, the correct answer should be some variation of:
Civilized society → People willing to follow self-sacrificing moral code
If you accept the above as true, it chains with the established premise to give you the conclusion.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Civilized society can exist Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer matches our anticipation, setting up that willingness to follow moral codes as necessary for society. It’s also weaker than the stimulus (“can exist”; “there are people”), which is absolutely fine for a Strengthen with Necessary Premise question (answers that are stronger than the argument are a problem in this question type, since they’re overkill and thus not necessary). If civilized society can exist even if there aren’t people willing to follow such a moral code, the argument falls apart.
  2. B
    Failure to empathize with Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    This answer is too strong. It’s possible that a lack of empathy only sometimes leads to actions detrimental to civilized society, but that’s enough to undermine such a civilization.
  3. C
    If everyone in a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer is a reversal of the connection we’re looking for, so it’s not necessary for the argument to hold.
  4. D
    Moral codes that include Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The argument is entirely conditional, so it doesn’t have to be true that such a moral code has actually existed.
  5. E
    People who feel empathy Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The argument requires that people “sometimes” ignore their own welfare to help others, not that this “tends to” happen.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 81%
  2. B 6%
  3. C 7%
  4. D 2%
  5. E 4%

Deeper help

Ask follow-ups on any step

Optional AI tutor mode will let you interrogate assumptions, compare answers, and drill weak patterns without leaving the page.

Human-written explanations stay primary; AI is an add-on when you want it.

Discussion

View all discussions Start a discussion