A commission has been formed

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: commitment0% picked this

   Commission members who have expressed their opinions about disaster preparedness in the news media have also emphasized their commitment

   The commission members' "commitment to producing" an effective report is a totally new idea in this answer choice that was not mentioned in the stimulus. It's not the same as actually producing an effective report. If some commission members express this commitment, that's also not clearly related to the committee speaking with a unified voice. There is no definite, airtight way to connect this idea to the other premises or the conclusion. It is outside the scope of the argument.

   0%
2. B

   Out of Scope: should2% picked this

   News organizations should not provide a platform for members of the commission to express their opinions about disaster preparedness if doing so will undermine

   The argument is strictly about what commission members are doing and whether the report will be effective or not. When reading the argument it's natural for us to have opinions about these things being good or bad, but that is not what the argument itself is actually about. What "should" happen is outside the scope of the argument.

   2%
3. C

   Correct85% picked this

   The commission will be able to speak with a uniform voice only if individual members' opinions about disaster preparedness are not made

   Why this is right

   Hang on a minute. This isn't what we expected. But it does involve speaking with a unified voice. And a premise did state that commission members were speaking out in the news media "in advance of completion of the report." This answer is a conditional statement. "Only if" is the conditional logic indicator: unified voice → ~opinions public before completed The contrapositive is: opinions public before completed → ~unified voice We were told that the commission members are making their opinions public before the report is completed. Combining that information and the conditional premise with this answer allows the conclusion of the argument to follow logically: opinions public before completed opinions public before completed → ~unified voice ~unified voice → report not effective Therefore, report not effective

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

   85%
4. D

   Out of Scope: public speculation1% picked this

   If commission members had not expressed their opinions about disaster preparedness in the news media before the report was completed, there would have been

   Public speculation about the commission members' views is a new idea in this answer choice that was not mentioned in the stimulus. There is no definite, airtight way to connect this idea to the other premises or the conclusion. It is outside the scope of the argument.

   1%
5. E

   Out of Scope11% picked this

   The commission's report will not be effective if some of the commission members already had opinions about the nation's disaster preparedness even

   What happened before the commission was formed is a totally new topic in this answer choice that was not mentioned in the stimulus. We don't know how this relates to the members' current opinions or the commission speaking with a unified voice. There is no definite, airtight way to connect this topic to the other premises or the conclusion. It is outside the scope of the argument.

   11%