Logical reasoning PrepTest 135 · Section 1 · Question 18

Question prompt

Zoologist: Every domesticated large Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Domesticated large mammal → Domesticated thousands of years ago
Since then, people have certainly tried to domesticate all large wild mammals worth domesticating
Therefore - Any nondomesticated (wild) large mammal must be hard to domesticate or not worth domesticating.

Answer Anticipation

The conclusion here makes a judgment about what would be difficult to do and what wouldn’t be worth doing. Those are predictions, in a sense, and they’re based on what has been true in the past - in some cases, thousands of years ago.
Whenever a conclusion about the present/future is based on what was true in the past, the argument is committing a common flaw. This argument is assuming that what was difficult is still difficult, and what wasn’t worth it still isn’t. Let’s find an answer dealing with this shift of time period.

Answer choices

  1. A
    in spite of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The argument only relies on people trying to domesticate the species that seemed worth it, not all wild animal species. A good giveaway that this answer is wrong is that the conclusion is about “most” animals and this is about all (“each”).
  2. B
    it is not much Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    The argument uses what was true in past domestication attempts to draw a conclusion about what would be true of domestication attempts today. That’s a common error in reasoning. This answer choice establishes that what was true about the difficulty of domesticating certain animals in the past would still be true today. If it weren’t - if it’s easier to domesticate animals today compared to the past - then the conclusion that certain wild large mammals would be difficult to domesticate falls apart.
  3. C
    not all of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Even if no domesticated species have gone extinct, the argument still holds together since the conclusion is about the nondomesticated species.
  4. D
    the easier it is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The argument doesn’t require a direct relationship between the ease of domestication and the worthwhileness of it.
  5. E
    of all the domesticated Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer is way too specific in talking about the “very first” domesticated animals and the ease with which they were domesticated.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 25%
  2. B Credited 57%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 8%
  5. E 5%

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