Essayist: Computers have the capacity

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Premise Match / Bad Conclusion Match4% picked this

   Often individual animals sacrifice their lives when the survival of their offspring or close relatives is threatened. It is probable, therefore, that there is

   This only has one premise, so it’s not very tempting to analyze. The one premise here is an “often” statement, whereas the premise about computers was an “all computers” type statement. The conclusion is saying that something is “probable”, whereas the original conclusion was certain of itself: the human mind is a computer.

   4%
2. B

   Bad Conclusion Match7% picked this

   In the plastic arts, such as sculpture or painting, no work can depend for its effectiveness upon a verbal narrative that explains it. Since

   There is a comparison made between two different things (plastic arts and poetry), but to match the original it would have to conclude that “Poetry is a type of plastic art” or vice versa. This conclusion rules out a characteristic as a criterion for judging something. That’s not even close to the type of claim the original conclusion was. **Why am I convinced that if we scoured the Internet, we could find John Lennon at some point being quoted as saying, ‘Poetry is a type of plastic art, man’**

   7%
3. C

   Correct81% picked this

   In any organism, the proper functioning of each component depends upon the proper functioning of every other component. Thus, communities belong to the category

   Why this is right

   This says that both organisms and communities share the trait of needing all their various parts to work properly in order to function properly. And it concludes that one thing is a type of the other, by saying “communities are a type of organism”.

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

   81%
4. D

   Bad Premise Match / Bad Conclusion Match2% picked this

   Some vitamins require the presence in adequate amounts of some mineral in order to be fully beneficial to the body. Thus, since selenium is

   I would stop reading after “Some vitamins”, since the original premise generalized about all computers. The two premises also fail to provide a similarity between two things, and the conclusion fails to say that one thing is a type of another thing.

   2%
5. E

   Weak Premise Match / Bad Conclusion Match6% picked this

   Friendship often involves obligations whose fulfillment can be painful or burdensome. The same can be said of various forms of cooperation that cannot strictly

   I would be suspicious and potentially bail upon seeing “often”, since the original premise generalized about all computers. However, the two premises do give us an underlying similarity between two things (both friendship and other types of cooperation can involve painful obligations). But the conclusion does not say that one of those things is a type of the other.

   6%