Logical reasoning PrepTest 152 · Section 4 · Question 14

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Argument Structure

Stimulus Summary:
M: Technology is hurting the environment, so humans must go back to a natural way of living.

C: Humans have been using technology to change their environment for thousands of years—it is natural—so your criticism is invalid.

Answer Anticipation:
Cora's use of the word natural parrots that of Max, so it's probably going to feature in the correct answer. Here, Cora brings up a consideration to refute Max's implication that changing the environment is unnatural.

Answer Explanation:
Here's our answer. It points out that Cora is rebutting Max's belief that technology is unnatural and hurting the environment (the alleged cause) by showing that it's a part of human nature.

Key Takeaway:
When there are two speakers who use the same word, dive in to see if there's a discrepancy in how they're using it, or how they think it applies to the argument. Here, Max and Cora disagree over what counts as "natural," and that helped us find the correct answer.

Cora and Max aren't debating the relative merits of technology, but rather whether it's natural (and thus whether a return to natural living is a fix).

Both Cora and Max agree that technology has been changing the environment; the debate is over whether that's natural.

Neither Cora nor Max discusses the difficulty of going back to a more natural way of living. Cora seems to think that we're already living naturally, since using technology is in our nature!

Neither argues the morality of technology-driven environmental changes. Even Max just brings up a potential fix, not whether it's a moral one.