Logical reasoning PrepTest 154 · Section 1 · Question 16

Incorrect. The stimulus states that the clergy's bias would lead them to exaggerate the religious devotion of peasants. That leaves plenty of room for them to write about nonreligious activities, exaggerating the piety of the peasants when discussing the religious activities.

Incorrect. First, this answer is just about "many" members of the clergy, not most or even a significant number. Second, this answer doesn't address any potential bias the clergy may have had in noting peasants' dedication to religion.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Summary:
Medieval record keepers were mostly clergy, so they probably exaggerated people's religious devotion, and thus there's a reason to question whether medieval peasants were as religious as believed based on those records.

Answer Anticipation:
The stimulus concludes that a bias present in the record keepers of an era calls into question a particular conclusion drawn from those records. However, there's no evidence presented that the bias influenced the records kept, or even that the bias was even present! Any information that calls into question this bias or its influence on the records will weaken this argument.

Answer Explanation:
By showing examples of the clergy not exaggerating the religious dedication of individuals, this answer calls into question the accusation of bias and inaccuracy from the stimulus. The counterexamples in this answer choice undermine the reasoning in the stimulus.

Key Takeaway:
Weaken questions frequently feature counterexamples to highlight that a general principle isn't true, or is less applicable than the stimulus believes. We should anticipate counterexamples when there are generalizations or correlation/causation issues!

Incorrect. While it may be a requirement for historians to check all records, that doesn't tell us anything about the accuracy of those records, or the exaggerations made in any of them individually.

Incorrect. This answer choice doesn't provide any reason to believe that these accounts are or are not exaggerated, so it doesn't affect the argument.