Logical Reasoning

PT121 · S4 · Q20 Advertisement: The Country Classic is

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Advertisement: The Country Classic is the only kind of car in its class that offers an antilock braking system that includes TrackAid.

Conclusion

If you're a safety-conscious person in the market for a car in this class, the Country Classic is the only car for you.

Evidence

The Country Classic is the only kind of car in its class with an antilock braking system that includes TrackAid (TrackAid keeps your rear wheels from spinning on slippery surfaces).

Evaluate

This is a very bizarre question stem. We're going to get a new fact that will make the advertisement seem misleading. "Misleading" means "technically true, but sends off the wrong message".

It's not clear that we should be looking for assumptions / objections here, because they could give us an answer that makes a premise seem "true, but misleading" or give us an answer that makes the conclusion seem "true, but misleading".

What if the Country Classic is the only kind of car in its class, period? That would make it seem misleading to boast ?

What if TrackAid is just a proprietary name for Country Classic's anti-lock braking system. Other cars in the same class have equally effective anti-lock braking systems (including on rear wheels), they just call it something different.

Goal

Look for any answer that would make a premise seem less impressive, or one that would make the conclusion sound true, but in a hollow/misleading way.

20.

The advertisement is misleading if which one of the following is true?

  1. All of the cars that

    Weak Impact

    The first sentence already suggests that other cars in its class have antilock braking systems; the first sentence is saying that what makes Country Classic special is that its antilock system includes TrackAid.

    10% picked this

  2. Most kinds of cars that

    Weak Impact

    If most cars in the same class as Country Classic are made by the same parent manufacturer, it makes that class of cars sound less diversified, and possibly suggests that there aren't that many cars in that class to begin with. The fewer cars there are in the Country Classic's class, the less impressive it is to boast that it's the leader of the class or the only car in its class with X. (I used to tell people how I graduated at the top of my class, for Philosophy. I'd let them be impressed and then tell them, "there were only 8 of us", to then comically diminish the accomplishment)

    2% picked this

  3. Without an antilock braking system,

    No Impact

    This is a fact that makes antilock braking systems sound valuable, which was the intended effect of the commercial, so this doesn't point to anything misleading. The commercial was trying to make TrackAid seem special/important, and TrackAid dealt with preventing wheels from spinning on slippery surfaces. This answer makes that threat seem like the smaller of two threats, so we might think diminishing the threat of spinning on slippery surfaces diminishes the importance of TrackAid. But as long as spinning on slippery surfaces is a threat, the commercial can still say we get some safety benefit out of having TrackAid, in addition to what standard anti-lock brakes do.

    5% picked this

  4. Correct

    Other cars in the same

    Why this is right

    The commercial was trying to make the Country Classic sound like it was special / safer, because it was the only car in its class with TrackAid, which prevents rear slipping. But this answer would allow us to object, "Sure, the Country Classic might be the only car in its class with TrackAid, but it's not the only car in its class that prevents rear wheels from spinning on slippery surfaces. We don't use TrackAid, but we have SlipNot, which does the same thing."

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

    82% picked this

  5. The Country Classic is more

    Irrelevant: expensive

    The fact that the Country Classic is the most expensive car in its class might be an idea that would weaken a conclusion saying, "You should buy the Country Classic". But we weren't asked to weaken the conclusion. We were asked for something that would make the advertisement seem misleading (i.e. what is says is technically true, but it sends the wrong message). The argument never talked about anything relating to cost, so it couldn't have misled when it comes to how expensive the Country Classic is.

    1% picked this

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