Logical Reasoning

PT153 · S2 · Q3 Food columnist: Only 2 percent of imported seafood

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Food columnist: Only 2 percent of imported seafood is subjected to health safety inspections.

Conclusion (So)

If you want to increase the likelihood that the seafood you buy will be safe to eat, you should buy only domestic seafood.

Evidence

Only 2% of imported seafood is subjected to health safety inspections.

Evaluate

Let's just try to argue the Anti-Conclusion.

Given that .... only 2% of imported seafood is subjected to health safety inspections

How could we ague that .... buying only domestic seafood is not increasing the likelihood your seafood is safe to eat?

- Maybe only 1% of domestic seafood is subjected to inspection? The author seems to be assuming that a higher proportion of domestic is inspected than is imported.

- Maybe 100% of imported seafood is inspected in the host country that exports it? We just spot check 2% when it arrives at our docks to verify it looks good.

Goal

Find an answer that seems like a crucial component in comparing the safety of imported seafood to domestic seafood.

(The correct answer should be a question that can be answered in a way that would weaken the argument)

3.

The answer to which one of the following questions would most help in evaluating the food columnist's argument?

  1. Do the health safety inspections

    Too Extreme

    Too Extreme: all Unrelated to Goal: domestic vs. imported The fact that this isn't a question that helps us assess the comparative risk between domestic vs. imported means it's useless to us. There isn't any answer here that would weaken. We could say, "no, health safety inspections don't detect every single health risk present", but that wouldn't give us a way to argue that imported seafood is at least as safe as domestic seafood. It would be a fact that applies evenly to both of them.

    2% picked this

  2. What kinds of health risks

    Unrelated to Goal: domestic vs. imported

    The fact that this isn't a question that helps us assess the comparative risk between domestic vs. imported means it's useless to us. There isn't any answer here that would weaken. We could say, "one health risk that seafood can pose is salmonella poisoning", but that wouldn't give us a way to argue that imported seafood is at least as safe as domestic seafood. It would be a fact that applies evenly to both of them.

    0% picked this

  3. What percentage of imported food

    Out of Scope: other than seafood

    This argument is only about comparing the risk of domestic seafood to imported seafood. Other types of food are irrelevant.

    1% picked this

  4. What percentage of domestic food

    Out of Scope: other than seafood

    This argument is only about comparing the risk of domestic seafood to imported seafood. Other types of food are irrelevant.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    What percentage of domestic seafood

    Why this is right

    This would help us compare domestic seafood to imported seafood. We already know what % of imported seafood gets inspected (only 2%). The author is acting like a higher percentage of domestic seafood gets inspected, but she never established that this is the case. Here, we have a question that can be answered in a way that would weaken. If we said, 'Only 1% of domestic seafood is inspected", then the fact that 2% of imported seafood is inspected would allow us to argue that imported seafood is at least as safe to eat as domestic. If we had an argument that said, "Sharon is much stronger than Tom. After all, Tom can only bench press 100 lbs.", we would be like, "Okay, can Sharon bench press more than 100lbs?" And an analogous answer choice would say: (E) How much can Sharon bench press?

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

    97% picked this

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