Logical Reasoning

PT105 · S1 · Q15 Jessica: The budget surplus should

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Jessica: The budget surplus should be used only to increase government payments to those who are unemployed.

Jessica's Claim

The only thing the budget surplus should be used for is to increase government payments to the unemployed.

Marcie's Response

I think it would be better to use the money on a public works project that would create jobs.

Evaluate

Okay, well this is simpler than usual, in the sense that Jessica only makes one claim, so Marcie has to be disagreeing with that claim.

Goal

The most likely way they would make this hard is expressing Person 1's position using Person 2's wording, or vice versa. For example:

Person 1's position: Surplus money should not be used for a public works project that would create jobs.

Person 2's position: Surplus money should not be exclusively used to increase government payments to those who are unemployed.

Let's look for any answer where we can infer agreement from one person and disagreement from the other, but it should center around language about .

15.

On the basis of their statements, Jessica and Marcie are committed to disagreeing about the truth of which one of the following?

  1. Using the budget surplus to

    Unsupported Disagreement Relative vs. Absolute

    We can probably infer that Jessica would agree with this, but can we infer that Marcie would say, "using surplus money to give more assistance to the unemployed is not putting this money to a good use"? No, we know she thinks that using it for a public works project would be better, but that doesn't mean that the worse option (giving it to unemployed) is a bad option. That would be using relative language in the stimulus to support absolute language in the answer.

    14% picked this

  2. The public deserves to have

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: public deserves Both Probably Agree This language does center around where surplus money should / shouldn't be spent. It's about what the public does / doesn't deserve, which neither of them talked about. To the extent that their ideas are "give money to the unemployed vs. create jobs (for the unemployed)", it seems like they're both sympathetic towards the idea of helping the unemployed.

    1% picked this

  3. When there is a choice

    Too Strong: usually

    Neither person's statements provide support for this claim about how money should usually be spent. They're only speaking to this current budget surplus.

    13% picked this

  4. Creating jobs through a public

    Unsupported Disagreement

    This isn't very tempting because the language is about whether or not new jobs would benefit the public, whereas we're looking for where budget surplus money should / shouldn't be spent. Marcie would probably agree with this answer, but can we support that Jessica thinks, "Creating jobs through a public works project will not ultimately benefit the public"? No, she says nothing about public works and so we have no support that she would be this pessimistic about its chances of benefiting the public.

    0% picked this

  5. Correct

    There is a better way

    Why this is right

    Marcie would agree; she says a better way would be for a public works project that would create jobs. Jessica would disagree; she says the only way the surplus money should be used is increasing payments to the unemployed. (This answer gives Person 2's position, while using the language mostly from Person 1)

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

    72% picked this

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