Logical Reasoning

PT16 · S2 · Q19 The Volunteers for Literacy Program

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The Volunteers for Literacy Program would benefit if Dolores takes Victor’s place as director, since Dolores is far more skillful than Victor is at securing the kind of financial support the program needs and Dolores does not have Victor’s propensity for alienating the program’s most dedicated volunteers.

Conclusion

If Dolores takes Victor's place as director, the VLP would benefit.

Evidence (since, and)

Dolores is more skillful at securing the funding the VLP needs.

Dolores doesn't have the Victor's propensity for alienating the most important volunteers.

Evaluate

We could probably get away with conversationalizing this one, rather than diagramming. It's more Comparative than Conditional.

The argument seems to be saying that Dolores would be a better choice for director than Victor, since she has more of a good thing (fundraising ability), and less of a bad thing (alienating volunteers).

Goal

Let's look for an argument saying Option 1 is better than Option 2 because Option 1 has more of a good trait and less/none of a bad trait.

19.

The pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?

  1. Correct

    It would be more convenient

    Why this is right

    This works. The conclusion is saying Option 1 (the bus) is better than Option 2 (the subway). The bus has more of a Good thing (proximity to her house) and it doesn't suffer from a Bad thing (no stops along the way). The conclusion here isn't conditional, as the original was, but the fundamental essence is the same. If we had another answer that also had the essence AND had a conditional conclusion, we could consider that choice even more similar, but it's not dealbreaker to rephrase a comparison as a conditional, or vice versa. Saying, "If you buy coffee X instead of coffee Y, you would benefit" is essentially the same as saying "coffee X is better than coffee Y".

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

    81% picked this

  2. Joshua’s interest would be better

    Bad Evidence Match

    The conclusion is saying Option 1 (the bus) is better than Option 2 (the airplane). But we don't hear that the bus has more of a Good thing and doesn't suffer from a Bad thing. We just hear that it has more of a Good thing (it's cheaper).

    6% picked this

  3. Belinda will get to the

    Bad Evidence Match

    The conclusion is saying Option 1 (the subway) is better than Option 2 (a taxi) when it comes to speed. But we don't hear that the subway has more of a Good thing and doesn't suffer from a Bad thing that Option 2 suffers from. We just hear, implicitly, that it doesn't suffer from a bad thing Option 2 has. Taking the taxi would likely mean hitting Friday evening traffic, whereas taking the subway doesn't involve fighting traffic.

    1% picked this

  4. Anita would benefit financially by

    Bad Evidence Match

    The conclusion is saying Option 1 (the train) is better than Option 2 (her car) when it comes to money. But we don't hear that the train has more of a Good thing and doesn't suffer from a Bad thing that Option 2 has. It just compares the magnitudes of the bad things. The bad thing for the car (parking fees) is of greater magnitude than the bad thing for the train (round-trip train ticket).

    5% picked this

  5. It would be to Fred’s

    Bad Evidence Match

    The conclusion is saying Option 1 (the train) is better than Option 2 (the bus). But we don't hear that the train has more of a Good thing and doesn't suffer from a Bad thing. We just hear that the train has more of a Good thing (it will get him there sooner than the bus will).

    8% picked this

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