Logical reasoning PrepTest 120 · Section 1 · Question 21

Incorrect. This argument has two things that make it incorrect. First, it discusses the average of a group, which is a characteristic of the collection of individuals, not the group as a whole. Second, this has a temporal element in talking about Monica who "just moved" to one of the groups.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Flawed Parallel Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Our country's court system is the least fair, so our highest court is the least fair.

Answer Anticipation:
Whenever an argument is talking about a collection of things—the population, citizenry, a system, a business, etc. . . —there's always a chance that it's going to jump from what is true of that whole to an individual element within it.

Here, the argument uses the lack of fairness in the court system—the whole—to draw a determination about something true about one of the courts in the system—the part. This is a flawed jump. It's possible, after all, that the entire court system is corrupt except the highest court, which acts as a bulwark against lawlessness.

Let's find an answer that similarly uses something true of a whole to draw a conclusion that a part has the same characteristic.

Answer Explanation:
This answer jumps from what is true of a major—a whole—to what is true of an individual class—a part. While it does have an either/or that the stimulus doesn't, for Flawed Parallel Reasoning questions, those elements only have to match up if they're flawed. Here, the option isn't a flawed element, so it's fine that it doesn't match up. This is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
As soon as you saw the discussion of the court "system," you should have started to think about a Part vs. Whole flaw (here, a Whole to Part). Any language suggesting a collection should be viewed as potentially the Whole part of this flaw.

Incorrect. If you try to make this argument work, it has a jump from whole to part (racing cars to car parts), and then from part to whole (car parts to passenger cars). That has a flawed element missing from the stimulus, so it's incorrect.

Incorrect. This answer commits an incomplete comparison—there's no jump from parts and wholes.

Incorrect. This answer has an incomplete comparison, jumping from one option being better than another to that option being best. It doesn't have a whole that could be used to justify a conclusion about a part.