Logical reasoning PrepTest 125 · Section 4 · Question 12

Incorrect. The Linguist does establish that it's unclear the hypothesis can be tested, but that doesn't allow a conclusion to be drawn that it's "probably false." Jumping from unproven (unprovable?) to probably false would be an absence of evidence flaw.

Incorrect. While the argument does imply that the hypotheses of the physical sciences are verifiable, and the SW Hypothesis might not be, that doesn't mean that no hypothesis from outside the physical sciences is verifiable. This answer is too broad.

Incorrect. The stimulus never discusses what should or should not be seriously considered, so this answer is out of scope.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
SW Hypothesis - Language affects world view
Premise - It's unclear if the hypothesis can be tested
Conclusion - The hypothesis isn't as verifiable as physical science hypotheses

Answer Anticipation:
Unlike most Must Be True questions, this one features an argument. However, we still need to treat each statement as true—including the conclusion.

It also means that any necessary assumptions for the stimulus could be answer choices. Here, there is one—the argument requires the assumption that the hypotheses of physical sciences can be tested, thus allowing the comparison in the conclusion to be drawn.

Outside of that, it's unclear what the correct answer could be, so let's head to the answer choices to see if anything is in scope and can be supported.

Answer Explanation:
The Linguist establishes that the hypothesis isn't verifiable, which means we can't know whether it's true or false. If it can't be verified, then it can't be known with certainty.

Key Takeaway:
The correct answer here relied crucially on the conclusion of the argument in the stimulus being true, but it was the conclusion of a flawed argument. That's fine! For Must Be True questions, we're tasked with treating the stimulus as true/accurate—and that includes conclusions.

Incorrect. Similar to (C), the stimulus doesn't discuss taking hypotheses seriously, so this answer is out of scope.