Logical reasoning PrepTest 140 · Section 2 · Question 22

Incorrect. This answer is the negation of the connection we're looking for, justifying a conclusion that the water isn't likely to get contaminated.

Incorrect. The argument does establish that there won't be more dairy inspectors, so this answer establishes that not all of the drinking water will be clean; in other words, some of it will be polluted. However, the conclusion is that most of that water is likely to become contaminated, so this answer doesn't justify a conclusion as strong as the one in the stimulus.

Incorrect. This answer establishes a necessary condition ("only if") for the water becoming polluted. Since that's the conclusion of the argument, we're looking for a sufficient condition guaranteeing it.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise

Stimulus Summary:
not Budget allows for more dairy inspectors → Most large dairies won't meet standards of waste disposal making it so waste can seep into streams/groundwaternot Budget allows for more dairy inspectors
Therefore Ð Most of the drinking water will probably become polluted

Answer Anticipation:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions featuring conditional logic generally fall into one of two camps. One type has several conditionals that chain together, with a missing link between two premises or between the premise chain and the conclusion. The other applies a conditional to a specific case, generally failing to establish that the sufficient condition is met by the scenario as described.

Here, the argument falls into the second camp, but it does establish that the sufficient condition is met. When that happens, the gap is between the necessary condition of the conditional and the conclusion, so let's look there for a gap.

The lack of additional dairy inspectors, according to the conditional, guarantees that most of the large dairies won't meet waste disposal standards. This is noted as potentially ("can") leading to waste seeping into the streams/groundwater. However, the conclusion treats this as a probability instead of a possibility, so there's a jump there that will need to be addressed by the Answer Explanation:

If most large dairies don't meet waste disposal standards, then most of the district's drinking water is likely to become polluted.

Answer Explanation:
This answer connects what the premises guarantee (dairies not meeting standards) and the conclusion (most of the drinking water likely getting contaminated), so it's the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions with conditional logic will generally have you find a missing link in a conditional chain, or connect the details of a scenario to a sufficient condition of a principle. Here, neither of those applied, and it was the necessary condition of the conditional that needed to be connected to the conclusion—a rarer pattern.

Incorrect. The premises establish that most of the large dairies won't meet standards, not that all of them will fail to, as this answer requires to apply.