Logical reasoning PrepTest 118 · Section 1 · Question 12

Incorrect. The argument can't reach any valid conclusion based on the play not being successful, so the stimulus doesn't have a conclusion that it can fail to draw.

Incorrect. The conditional rule established just cares about success, not any specific type of success, so this answer doesn't reflect a flaw in the argument.

Incorrect. There's no discussion of aesthetic worth or commercial success—just generic "success"—so this answer is out of scope.

Incorrect. If the conclusion were that the play won't go through any further avenues, then this answer would be correct. However, the conclusion is just that it won't be adapted into a movie or revived, so this answer doesn't properly describe the argument.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Errors in Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Play successful → Movie adaptation OR Revived at Decade Festival
not Play successful
Therefore: not Movie adaptation AND not Revived at Decade Festival

Answer Anticipation:
The argument lays out a conditional relationship, and then uses a negation of the sufficient condition to conclude a negation of the necessary condition. That's an illegal negation, so the correct answer will need to point out that conditional logic flaw.

Answer Explanation:
This answer highlights the illegal negation. An illegal negation is flawed because there are potentially other sufficient conditions that can be met to lead to a given necessary condition. This answer highlights that—while the play doesn't meet one criteria for revival or adaptation, there could be others (such as being a favorite of a prominent director or producer).

Key Takeaway:
The conditional logic flaws are often much easier to spot than they are to find in the answer choices, as the answers can be convoluted and difficult to parse. That's particularly true when there are multiple answers that discuss sufficient and necessary conditions. That wasn't the case here, but it is in other questions, so use questions like this to learn and drill what the correct answers describing these different conditional logic flaws sound like so you can differentiate between them and the wrong ones when you're given options!