Concerned citizen: The mayor, an

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Description34% picked this

   The argument is solely an emotional appeal

   This says the argument is solely an emotional appeal to history. That mischaracterizes the argument. The citizen offers a substantive reason — that the building is the last remaining link to the city's founding and that preserving municipal history is crucial to maintaining respect for the government. Whether or not that reason is decisive, it is more than pure emotion. And "solely" is too strong. The actual flaw is the shift in the word "afford."

   34%
2. B

   Correct63% picked this

   The argument ambiguously uses the word

   Why this is right

   This nails the flaw. The mayor's "Can we afford to?" asks about financial capacity — do we have the budget? The citizen's "Can we afford not to?" asks about a different kind of capacity — can we accept the historical and civic loss? The citizen treats her rhetorical question as if it answered the mayor's, but the two questions use "afford" in different senses. Showing we cannot accept losing our history does not show that we have the money to spend on a restoration. That is equivocation — relying on one word doing two different jobs.

   Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   63%
3. C

   Inappropriate Appeals1% picked this

   The argument inappropriately appeals to the authority of

   "Inappropriately appeals to the authority of the mayor" would mean the citizen is using the mayor as an authority figure to support her own view. She does not — she disagrees with the mayor and is arguing against him. There is no appeal to the mayor's authority. The actual flaw is the shift in the meaning of "afford," not an appeal to authority.

   1%
4. D

   Bad Description1% picked this

   The argument incorrectly presumes that the restoration would

   The citizen does not deny that the restoration would be expensive. She actually concedes that the mayor is "right when he notes that ... the restoration would be expensive at a time when the budget is already tight." She just argues we should do it anyway. This answer misdescribes the argument's structure.

   1%
5. E

   Bad Description1% picked this

   The argument inappropriately relies on the emotional connotations of words such as “outdated”

   "Outdated" and "luxury" are words from the mayor's case against restoration, not from the citizen's case for it. The citizen quotes them in summarizing the mayor's position. She does not rely on the emotional connotations of those words to support her own conclusion — if anything, she has to overcome them. This answer misidentifies whose argument is doing the work.

   1%