Logical Reasoning

PT152 · S2 · Q25 The more demand there is

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The more demand there is for something, the easier it is to sell.

Conclusion

Used cars less than 10 years old are generally easier to sell than are cars that are 10 or more years old.

Evidence

The more demand for something, the easier it is to sell. (the author must be assuming that there's more demand for cars under 10 yrs old than over 10 yrs old)

Junkyards have a lot of demand for cars under 10 years old, since those cars have modern parts that can be resold for money. Meanwhile, cars older than 10 years have older parts that junkyards don't want as much, because there's not as much of a market for that.

Evaluate

Given that we have this rule , and given that we know there is more demand from junkyards for newer cars than for older cars,

How can we still argue that cars older than 10 yrs are generally easier to sell?

Well, the author seems to be pretty boxed in here in terms of only considering selling to a junkyard. Couldn't we say that there's a lot of demand for my 12 year old Honda Civic? People know these cars still drive well and if I'm selling it for $2000, there's probably a family with an 18 year old kid that would love to buy this cheap, dependable used car as the kid's first car.

Goal

Since we can object to this argument by saying, , the author is assuming there ISN'T a lot of demand from people (non-junkyard people) who want to buy these older cars.

25.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

  1. The salability of something is

    Too Strong: not influenced by any

    Although the author is saying that more demand increases salability, she hasn't committed herself to the idea that more demand is the only factor that increases salability.

    20% picked this

  2. All used cars that are

    Too Strong: all

    Even though the author is for some reason focused only on how easy it would be to sell these cars to junkyards, she hasn't committed herself to the idea that ALL used cars older than 10 years get sold to junkyards. The squishy conclusion "generally easier to sell" allows for exceptions.

    5% picked this

  3. In general, the older something

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: in general Too Strong: the more X, the more Y She doesn't have to be making assumptions about how AGE relates to DEMAND when it comes to other types of commodities. Maybe when it comes to selling clothes or furniture or baseball cards or toys, the older stuff has a lot of retro, vintage value and is easier to sell.

    8% picked this

  4. When determining the selling price

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: lack of supply Opposite: lack of demand Since the author is saying that there's more demand for cars less than ten years old, it doesn't seem like she mentioned or assumed anything about a lack of demand for cars less than ten years old.

    7% picked this

  5. Correct

    The salability of cars that

    Why this is right

    The "largely" in this answer matches the strength of the "generally" in the conclusion. Since her conclusion is about how easy cars are to sell, and her evidence is exclusively about how easy they would be to sell to junkyards for parts, she is assuming that the primary market for these older cars is selling them to junkyards for parts. If we negate this and say, "the salability of older cars is minimally a function of how much demand there is for their parts", it would make the Evidence seem much less compelling or relevant. Since the negation weakens, the answer is correctly expressing an assumption.

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

    60% picked this

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