Logical Reasoning

PT12 · S1 · Q14 Morris High School has introduced

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Morris High School has introduced a policy designed to improve the working conditions of its new teachers.

Conclusion (Thus)

More full-time than part-time teachers at Morris now quit during their first year.

Evidence

One-quarter of part-time teachers quit in their first year.

One-third of full-time teachers quit in their first year.

Evaluate

The evidence gives fractions. The conclusion gives a comparison of numbers: more full-time teachers quit than part-time teachers.

Any time we're doing Flaw and we see a switch from relative ideas (percent / fraction) to absolute ideas (number / amount), we want to suspect the % vs. # flaw.

This is when authors imagine that a bigger percentage/fraction automatically means a bigger number.

1/3 is bigger than 1/4, so the author thinks the former quantity is bigger.

But to turn a fraction / percentage into a number, you need to apply it to a group. A third of a small group can be fewer people than a quarter of a large one.

If Morris employs 30 new full-time teachers and 120 new part-time teachers, a third of the first is 10 and a quarter of the second is 30, and more part-time teachers quit.

The argument would hold only if the two groups were about the same size or the full-time group were larger, which it never says.

Goal

This is the Famous Flaw of Relative vs. Absolute: a bigger percentage is taken to mean a bigger number.

Since the answers are all prefaced by fails to consider / ignores the possibility, we'll treat them all like Weaken answers.

Look for one saying that there could be way more part-time teachers than full time teachers (and thus there could be more part-timers quitting during first year).

14.

The argument’s reasoning is questionable because the argument fails to rule out the possibility that

  1. before the new policy was

    Bad Objection

    The conclusion is about who quits now, after the policy. How many part-time versus full-time teachers quit before the policy doesn't help us analyze how many are currently quitting. This could mildly help us argue that more part-timers quit as a historical precedent that makes our claim more plausible, but we know there's been a new policy enacted since then, so that makes it really dubious to argue for the present on the basis of what uses to be true.

    3% picked this

  2. before the new policy was

    Bad Objection

    Like the previous answer, this concerns the period before the policy. Since there's been a policy change since then, we won't feel good inferring anything about the present situation based on how it went down in the past.

    4% picked this

  3. Morris High School employs more

    Opposite

    We wanted to hear that there are more part-time teachers, so this is the opposite. It's strengthening. If there are more new full-time teachers than part-time, then a third of the larger group certainly exceeds a quarter of the smaller one, and the conclusion follows.

    13% picked this

  4. Correct

    Morris High School employs more

    Why this is right

    If Morris employs more new part-time than full-time teachers, a quarter of the part-timers could be more people than a third of the full-timers, and the conclusion could be false. for example ... 1/4 (100 part time teachers) > 1/3 (60 full time teachers)

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

    76% picked this

  5. Morris High School employs the

    Opposite

    If the two groups are the same size, then 1/3 of one group is definitely more than 1/4 of the other group. This would prove the conclusion true.

    3% picked this

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