One is likely to feel comfortable

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: only if3% picked this

   presumes, without warrant, that one is likely to feel uncomfortable approaching a person only if that

   The author hasn’t committed herself to this type of assumption. She might realize we’re uncomfortable approaching non-strangers quite a bit (maybe they’re an ex, or we “stole” a promotion from them). Those types of situations are irrelevant to the conversation at hand, which is about long-term friendships, which usually begin with a stranger (not a non-stranger).

   3%
2. B

   Bad Premise Match24% picked this

   infers that a characteristic is present in a situation from the fact that that characteristic is present

   Does the author conclude that a characteristic is present in a situation? Kind of, she concludes that the characteristic of “similar age” is usually present in a situation of long-term friends. Is the evidence saying that “in most cases of long-term friends, we see the characteristic of same-age?” No. It’s saying, in most cases of long-term friends, we see the characteristic of felt-comfy-talking-to-stranger. This argument would sound like, “Since most pizzas have meat based toppings, this pizza must have a meat based topping”.

   24%
3. C

   No Impact12% picked this

   overlooks the possibility that one is less likely to feel comfortable approaching someone who is one’s approximate age if that person is a stranger

   Would it hurt the author’s argument to make this “objection”: “Hey, author, we’re usually more comfortable approaching same-aged people we know than approaching same-aged people that are strangers”? Not at all. She’d probably agree. She probably thinks that it’s challenging to feel comfortable to approach a stranger, but that finding a stranger of a similar age makes it less uncomfortable. Since it's established that most long-term friendships start with a pair of strangers, not a pair of people who know each other, the way we feel when interacting with people we know is irrelevant to this conversation.

   12%
4. D

   Too Strong: never, unless15% picked this

   presumes, without warrant, that one never approaches a stranger unless one feels

   All her wording is “likely, probably, most”, so she isn’t assuming anything that’s black and white like "never" / "unless".

   15%
5. E

   Correct45% picked this

   fails to address whether one is likely to feel comfortable approaching a stranger who is

   Why this is right

   When we're given "A ? B", and then an author illegally argues that "because something is B, it's A", we can either name the illegal Necessary vs. Sufficient move, or we can tell him that his move from B to A is flawed, because there are cases of things that are B but ~A. He moved from "since you felt comfy approaching a stranger, you must've been similar age", which was an illegal move. We can point that out by showing examples of cases in which "people were comfy approaching a stranger, even though they were of non-similar ages". Here's an easier example to process: "Short children love their Mom. Danny loves his Mom, so he's a probably short child." Analogous answer (E): fails to address whether one is likely to love their mother if they are not a short child.

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

   45%