If you know a lot about history

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Objection6% picked this

   Many intellectuals are not widely read

   Whether intellectuals themselves are widely read in history doesn't affect the argument. The premise says knowing history makes impressing intellectuals easy — that holds whether or not the intellectuals know history. (Indeed, an intellectual who isn't a history buff might still be impressed by someone who is.) So pointing this out doesn't expose the actual flaw.

   6%
2. B

   Bad Objection11% picked this

   There are people who learn about history who do not

   The argument doesn't claim history knowledge guarantees impressing intellectuals — it claims it makes the task easy. People who learn history but fail to impress intellectuals may not have actually used the easy route effectively. More importantly, the conclusion is about cases where you can't easily impress — counterexamples to the sufficiency direction don't expose its actual reasoning gap.

   11%
3. C

   Out of Scope0% picked this

   It is more important to impress people who are not intellectuals than people

   The argument is about whether you can easily impress intellectuals, not about whether impressing intellectuals is the right goal. Whether non-intellectuals are more important to impress doesn't affect the argument's reasoning at all.

   0%
4. D

   Correct82% picked this

   There are other easy ways to impress intellectuals that do not

   Why this is right

   This is the flaw. The premise says history knowledge is sufficient for easily impressing intellectuals — but the argument concludes that no history means no easy impressing, which only follows if history is also necessary. (D) names exactly the overlooked possibility: there might be other easy ways. If a person can easily impress intellectuals through, say, philosophy, mathematics, or music, the argument's conclusion fails for them — even though they haven't read history.

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

   82%
5. E

   Out of Scope0% picked this

   People who are not intellectuals can be impressed more easily than people

   The argument is about whether impressing intellectuals is easy. Whether non-intellectuals are easier or harder to impress is a separate question and has no effect on the argument's reasoning about intellectuals.

   0%