Logical reasoning PrepTest 127 · Section 1 · Question 6

Question prompt

Violent crime in this Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Phenomenon - Law enforcement has responded to 17% more violent crimes this year compared to last.
Explanation - The violent crime rate has increased.

Answer Anticipation

This stimulus falls into the phenomenon/explanation pattern. The phenomenon is the increase in the amount of violent crimes law enforcement has responded to, and the explanation is an increase in violent crime.
When an explanation is offered for a phenomenon, the argument is usually ignoring other potential explanations. Here, there are a few! Maybe law enforcement changed their policies and now respond to more calls. Maybe the violent crime rate is the same but a higher percentage of them are getting reported. Any answer that suggests or provides evidence for one of these (or another) alternatives will weaken this argument.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The town's overall crime Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The overall crime rate doesn’t necessarily speak to the rate of violent crime. Any given subset of crime could increase or decrease while overall crime does the opposite if other types of crimes also shift.
  2. B
    In general, persons under Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The relative rate of violent crime between two groups doesn’t speak to the overall level of violent crime.
  3. C
    As a result of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    This answer highlights that the increase in reports might be because a higher percentage of violent crimes are being reported, not that there are more violent crimes. As such, it weakens the argument.
  4. D
    In response to worries Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    What is done in response to a perceived increase in violent crime doesn’t speak to the increase in law enforcement response to violent crimes, so this answer is out of scope. (Note that this “happens” after the supposed increase in violent crime, so it can’t serve as an explanation for the data that led to that conclusion.)
  5. E
    Community officials have shown Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer doesn’t provide an alternative explanation for the increase in response rate.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B 3%
  3. C Credited 89%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 3%

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Discussion

  • C vs. E 1 reply

    Started by Chloe-Shoemaker

  • Answer B 2 replies

    Started by TimB

  • Help 3 replies

    Started by TheFacu

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