Logical reasoning PrepTest 154 · Section 1 · Question 13

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Necessary Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Voice-recognition technology can't distinguish between homophones, so until it recognizes context clues, this technology won't be accurate.

Answer Anticipation:
Looking at the conclusion, we can see that there's a condition attached to it—if voice-recognition technology can't recognize context clues, it won't be accurate. The accuracy part is related to the premises—after all, getting the wrong homophone is an inaccuracy. However, it's never established that context clues—grammar and semantic relations—are necessary to be able to make that distinction. It's possible there are other solutions to that problem. This argument relies on the technology not being able to distinguish between homophones without that semantic distinction, so the correct answer should make that connection.

Answer Explanation:
This answer establishes the relationship that the argument relies on. If distinguishing between homophones doesn't require the ability to recognize grammar and semantic relationships, then the conclusion falls apart since the condition it's built on doesn't have to be met to guarantee the conclusion.

Key Takeaway:
Whenever a conclusion is based on a condition, be sure to note it and see how it interacts with the rest of the argument. Here, that condition was key to the gap in the argument since it based the conclusion on a condition that had never before been discussed.

Incorrect. This answer establishes recognition of grammar/semantics as sufficient to distinguish between homophones, but the argument concludes that those are necessary for that distinction to be drawn.

Incorrect. What matters to the argument is what technology/computers need to make this distinction, not what humans can do. This answer is out of scope without connecting human ability to computer ability.

Incorrect. This answer reverses the relationship from the stimulus, where the inability to recognize grammar/semantics is a problem for recognizing homophones, not the other way around.

Incorrect. Without knowing how they do it (do they check grammar and semantics?), this answer isn't connected to the stimulus.