Logical reasoning PrepTest 135 · Section 1 · Question 17
Question prompt
Economist: Some critics of
Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right
Credited answer: D
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
Errors in Reasoning Questions
Stimulus Summary
Critics: Negative economic news coverage damages confidence in the economy, decreasing willingness to spend, hurting the economy
Economist: Spending correlates with confidence in personal economic status, so negative news coverage of the economy doesn’t hurt it
Answer Anticipation
The Critics here create a multi-step causal chain to show why they believe that negative economic coverage damages the economy. This news coverage decreases consumer confidence, decreasing their willingness to spend, thus hurting the economy.
The Economist goes after one of these links - she states that spending isn’t correlated with confidence in the economy, but rather with one’s confidence in their own economic status. However, that ignores a possible connection between the two - maybe one’s confidence in their own economic status is directly related to how confident they are in the overall community. By ignoring this link, the Economist’s rebuttal fails, so the correct answer should highlight the jump.
Answer choices
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Aone's level of confidence Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice A is not credited
This answer is a bit of a reversal of the one we’re looking for. The Economist ignores the possibility that news of the economy overall affects how one views their own economic situation, not how their economic situation affects how they view economic news. -
Bnews reports about the Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice B is not credited
Accuracy doesn’t matter - impact does. An economic forecast on the news could affect consumer confidence whether or not it's accurate. -
Cpeople who pay no Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice C is not credited
First, the argument is about the effect that the news coverage of the economy has on people’s perceptions, so those who don’t watch news are a bit out of scope. Second, the accuracy of people’s views doesn’t matter - just the impact it has on their habits. -
Dpeople who have little Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice D matches the stem
This answer causally connects people’s view of the economy overall to their specific economic condition. If news coverage can shake people’s confidence in the overall economy, and this in turn can shake their confidence in their own economic position, then even if spending behavior is based on the latter, the news coverage will still affect it. The Economist fails to consider this connection, so this is the correct answer. -
Ean economic slowdown usually Remaining source text redacted.
Why choice E is not credited
This answer is trying to tie the coverage by the media into forewarning. However, it’s possible that people could be forewarned elsewhere, or that even those watching the news wouldn’t be forewarned about an economic downturn.
What this tests
Question analytics
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Answer choice distribution
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