Logical reasoning PrepTest 157 · Section 3 · Question 8

Flawed

Identify the conclusion Identify the premise Determine the role played by the statement from the question stem.

For example...

Premise Main conclusion Premise/conclusion

Find the answer choice that correctly expresses the role

On an Argument Structure question, an experienced test taker will first thoroughly deconstruct and understand the entire argument in the passage. Even though our job is to understand the role of the statement in the question stem, the benefits of understanding the whole argument are twofold. First, trying to figure out the role of the statement-in-question too early and without considering the entire argument can sometimes bias us and lead to an incorrect determination. Second, many answer choices will require us to know the roles of multiple propositions. (For instance, if the statement-in-question is a premise/conclusion, we'll probably also need to know which premise supports the premise/conclusion and which conclusion the premise/conclusion supports.) So, let's break down the anthropologists's entire argument, starting with the conclusion. The last sentence, which uses the structural word "Thus," is the main conclusion. So, the conclusion asserts that the people who adopted agriculture were motivated by other benefits of the agricultural lifestyle, like the opportunity to make a lot of money. What are the other claims doing in this anthropologist's argument? It seems like every other claim supports the last sentence. The first sentence shows a major downside of the transition to agriculture — it would have been traumatic. This suggests that the decision to transition to agriculture was not obvious or immediately apparent to most people. This supports the main conclusion by making it more likely that the transition to agriculture was likely due to ulterior motives, like the opportunity to amass wealth. That makes the first sentence a premise. The second sentence describes why the transition to agriculture would have been traumatic. That transition would have led to more disease and injury. Since the second sentence provides a reason why the first sentence is true, the second sentence supports the first. That makes the second sentence a premise. And it makes the first sentence a conclusion. So, for those keeping track at home, the first sentence is a premise and a conclusion. It's a premise/conclusion. So, now that we have broken down the entire argument, we can determine what role the statement from the question stem serves. The claim in question is the first sentence. As discussed above, that claim is a premise/conclusion, which is supported by the second sentence and supports the third.