PrepTest 140

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Valid

Question Type:
Parallel Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Concrete poured while ground wet → not Solid foundation
not Solid foundation → Settle unevenly OR Crack
Therefore: not Settle evenly → not Concrete poured while ground wet OR Crack

Answer Anticipation:
This stimulus is all about conditional logic, so after diagramming out the stimulus, we should identify quick elements we can look for to make those fast eliminations, leaving enough time to diagram the answers that have those features.

Here, we should be looking for those OR statements (one premise; one conclusion) to make quick eliminations. Outside of that, the correct answer will need to follow the form of:
A → B
B → C OR D
Therefore: not C → not A OR D

(Additionally, this is a valid argument. It's not too important to note that while doing this question, but it'd be a good drill to go through it to understand when you have the time during review!)

Answer Explanation:
This answer has the OR statements in the correct place, so we need to diagram it out (though see the takeaway for a note on that).
not Working properly → not Film properly exposed
not Film properly exposed → Blurred OR Dark
Therefore: not Blurred → Working properly OR Dark
That matches up, so this is our answer!

Key Takeaway:
If you had focused on the OR statements in the stimulus, you would have been able to eliminate all answers except the correct one just by seeing mismatches in the location of those statements. In that case, you can select the remaining answer without doing a full diagram! Noting these easy-to-match-up elements and doing a pass through the answers to make eliminations for answers that don't match can be a great way to turn a question like this into a beast that requires 6 complex diagrams into a question that requires 1 and can be completed much faster.

Incorrect. The conclusion in this answer has an AND necessary condition, not an OR necessary condition, making it wrong.

Incorrect. This answer features a non-conditional premise and a conclusion that doesn't have an OR necessary condition, letting us eliminate it.

Incorrect. The conclusion of this answer doesn't have an OR necessary condition, and the premise has an OR sufficient condition instead of an OR necessary condition. Those are each individually enough to eliminate this answer.

Incorrect. The premise here has an OR sufficient condition, not an OR necessary condition as in the stimulus; the same is true of the conclusion. Both of these mismatches are individually enough to eliminate this answer.