Logical Reasoning

PT108 · S2 · Q14 Essayist: Some researchers criticize British

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Essayist: Some researchers criticize British governmental security agencies for not releasing enough information about sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) made by these military and intelligence agencies.

Conclusion (this leads to)

It seems like there have been spacecraft sighted near Earth that are extraterrestrial in origin.

Evidence

When the British government gets requests from civilian researchers for information about sightings of UFOs made by military and intelligence agencies, those requests are brushed aside.

Evaluate

This author seems to interpret the brushed-aside requests for information as evidence that the British government has something to hide.

Isn't it possible that we could Explain this Curious Fact with some alternate explanation?

Maybe there really is nothing interesting to share with civilians and the British government is just annoyed by the frequent requests. Maybe there is something to hide, but it isn't "we discovered aliens".

Goal

Since this author is interpreting the meaning behind a Curious Fact, we can strengthen the argument by finding an answer that either - rule out an alternate explanation for why requests for info are brushed aside - boost the plausibility of the author's explanation, which is that the British government has sighted extraterrestrial spacecraft near Earth and is just unwilling to share info with the public about it.

14.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the essayist's argument?

The British government is generally
Weak Impact
This seems to corroborate our current story: the British government have secure information about aliens and they're not being forthcoming with it! But it's just saying that the British government would usually be evasive about sharing information, if it's secure information. There are too many types of secure information that a government keeps for us to take this answer and think it tells us anything specifically about extraterrestrial spacecraft.
3% picked this
Correct
The British government would withhold
Why this is right
This is a conditional, which is weird for Strengthen / Weaken answers. Typically, when they give us conditional answers on those question types, the answer has no impact because we aren't sure whether the conditional's trigger is met. "Only if" = Right side, necessary So this rule would look like this IF British govt THEN the UFOs withholds info → are known to be pertaining to UFOs from other planets Do we know if this rule is triggered? Yes! The British government is withholding info (brushing requests for info aside) regarding UFO sightings by their military and intelligence agencies. Since the rule is triggered, we know then that it has been established that these UFOs are from other planets. Does that do anything to help the argument? Yes! Even though most of us probably hear "UFO" and immediately think about aliens, the term doesn't necessarily mean aliens. It just means, "there's something in the sky and we're not sure what it is". It might be an animal. It might be a satellite. It might be a new type of ship from some other country's military. It might be a spaceship from another planet. This answer strengthens by ruling out all these alternative explanations for what the UFO might be. The conclusion is specifically saying that these UFO's are extraterrestrial spacecraft, and this answer all but proves that!
Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
62% picked this
The British government would deny
Weak Impact
This is similar to (B) in the sense that it gives us a conditional that we know is triggered by the government's unwillingness to honor requests for information. It's similar to (A) in the sense that the outcome we get from that triggered conditional is that, "The British government definitely has something to hide". In (A), we were thinking, "Okay, so they are probably hiding secure information." But just like (A), this answer is too unspecific to have much impact. Just because this tells us that the British government has something to hide doesn't mean that what they're hiding is discovery of alien spacecraft. They might have intelligence that tells them that these UFOs they've been spotting are a revolutionary new aircraft designed by the US military. The British government might have reasons to hide knowledge that such technology exists or that they're aware of it. When we compare the strengthening effect of (C) to (B), (B) is getting us much closer to the doorstep of the conclusion by guaranteeing that the thing the Brits are hiding is an alien spaceship.
32% picked this
The British government is less
No Impact
Whether they're less trusting of civilians or just interested in keeping proprietary secrets within the military community doesn't matter. This answer gets us nowhere closer to assuming that these UFOs are alien spacecraft. The UFO's might be part of some new military technology that other countries have, and the government strategically wants to keep that a secret from civilian researchers.
1% picked this
The British government has always
No Impact
This reinforces that the British government is hiding something / denying the existence of something / protecting secure information / depriving civilian researchers of knowing something. But just like the other wrong answers, this answer doesn't provide any nudge in favor of these UFOs being alien spacecraft, as opposed to some other form of UFO, such as a new military technology being tested by another nation.
3% picked this

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