Lawgic
When people of any physical condition suddenly increase their amount of exercise, they also increase their risk of heart attack.
Increase Exercise -> Increase Heart Attack Risk
Our country is debating legislation that, if passed, would force manufacturers to increase paid vacation days and pay higher overtime wages. But this legislation is being supported by members of groups that have resorted to violent tactics in the past, and thus does not deserve serious consideration.
Ad Hominem (attacking character of supporters)
In 8 words or fewer:
By the year 2030, the Earth's population is expected to increase to 10 billion; ideally, all would enjoy standards of living equivalent to those of present-day industrial democracies. However, if 10 billion people consume critical natural resources such as copper, nickel, and petroleum at the current per capita rates of industrialized countries, and if new resources are not discovered or substitutes developed, such an ideal would last a decade or less. Moreover, projections based on the current rate of waste production in many industrialized countries suggest that 10 billion people would generate enough solid waste every year to bury a large city and its surrounding suburbs 100 meters deep.
Population increase problems: resource shortage and waste production
The most reliable way to detect the presence of life on a planet would be by determining whether or not its atmosphere contains methane. This is because methane completely disappears from a planet's atmosphere through various chemical reactions unless it is constantly replenished by the biological processes of living beings.
Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A) There are other ways of detecting the presence of life on a planet.
B) Not all living beings have the ability to biologically produce methane.
C) We are incapable at present of analyzing a planet's atmosphere for the presence of methane.
D) Some living beings biologically produce only very small amounts of methane.
E) Earth is the only planet whose atmosphere is known to contain methane.
B) Not all living beings have the ability to biologically produce methane.
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?
Flaw
Additional training for the workers in Factory A would be efficient only if it provides workers an additional skill they did not previously possess.
Efficient -> Provide Additional Skill
All budget proposals must be reviewed by the president before being approved. The marketing team's new plan is an advertising proposal, not a budget proposal, and hence it will not be reviewed by the president.
Denying the Sufficient
Budget Proposal -> President Review
/Budget Proposal
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/President Review
In 6 words or fewer:
By presenting scene, character, and atmosphere using a unique layered and fragmented style that combines elements of painting with elements of collage, Bearden suggested some of the ways in which commonplace subjects could be forced to undergo a metamorphosis when filtered through the techniques available to the resourceful artist. Bearden knew that regardless of individual painters' personal histories, tastes, or points of view, they must pay their craft the respect of approaching it through an acute awareness of the resources and limitations of the form to which they have dedicated their creative energies.
Bearden's Style = transformation through art form
Geneticist: Ethicists have fears, many of them reasonable, about the prospect of cloning human beings, that is, producing exact genetic duplicates. But the horror-movie image of a wealthy person creating an army of exact duplicates is completely unrealistic. Clones must be raised and educated, a long-term process that could never produce adults identical to the original in terms of outlook, personality, or goals. More realistic is the possibility that wealthy individuals might use clones as living "organ banks."
The claim that cloning will not produce adults with identical personalities plays which one of the following roles in the geneticist's argument?
A) It is the reason for dismissing the various fears raised by ethicists regarding the cloning of human beings.
B) It is evidence that genetic clones will never be produced successfully.
C) It illustrates the claim that only wealth people would be able to have genetic duplicates made of themselves.
D) It is evidence for the claim that wealthy people might use genetic duplicates of themselves as sources of compatible organs for transplantation.
E) It is a reason for discounting one possible fear concerning the cloning of human beings.
E) It is a reason for discounting one possible fear concerning the cloning of human beings.
The issue in dispute between Powell and Freeman is the
Point at Issue (disagree)
Not all efforts to increase productivity are beneficial to business as a whole.
Efforts <-s-> /Beneficial
No cat will be adopted unless it friendly enough to play with. Sparky, the new shelter cat is friendly enough to play fetch. Therefore, Sparky will be adopted.
Adopted -> Friendly
Friendly
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Adopted
In 5 words or fewer:
The expansion of mass media has led to an explosion in news coverage of criminal activities to the point where it has become virtually impossible to find citizens who are unaware of the details of crimes committed in their communities. Since it is generally believed that people who know the facts of a case are more likely than those who do not to hold an opinion about the case, and that it is more desirable to empanel jurors who do not need to set aside personal prejudices in order to render a verdict, empaneling impartial juries has proven to be a daunting task in North American courts, particularly in trials involving issues or people of public interest.
Finding Impartial Juries = Problem (e.g.)
Fred argued that, since Kathleen is a successful film director, she has probably worked with famous actors. But, while Fred is right in supposing that most successful film directors work with famous actors, his conclusion is not warranted. For, as he knows, Kathleen works only on documentary films, and directors of documentaries rarely work with famous actors.
Which one of the following strategies is used above to criticize Fred's reasoning?
A) maintaining that too little is known about Kathleen to justify any conclusion
B) showing that Kathleen must not have worked with famous actors
C) claiming that Fred has failed to take relevant information into account
D) showing that Fred has mistakenly assumed that all successful film directors work with famous actors
E) demonstrating that Fred has failed to show that most successful film directors work with famous actors
C) claiming that Fred has failed to take relevant information into account
Which one of the following statements, if added to the argument, most helps to justify its conclusion?
PSA (find the rule)
Marshall will not speak fourth at the commencement unless Jane speaks second.
Marshall 4 -> Jane 2
Tanya: Our family's secret chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for brown sugar instead of white, and since all exceptional chocolate chip recipes use brown sugar instead of white, our recipe is exceptional.
Affirming the Necessary Condition
Exceptional Recipe -> Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar
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Exceptional Recipe
In 4 words or fewer:
Perhaps historians of African arts should ask if objects in similar styles were produced in centers of style, where artists belonging to one ethnic group produced art for all of their neighbors. Perhaps it is even more important to cease attempting to break down large regional styles into finer and finer tribal styles and substyles, and to recognize that artists in Africa often do not produce work only in their own narrowly defined ethnic contexts. As the case of the Konate sculptors makes clear, one cannot readily tell which group produced an object by analyzing fine style characteristics.
New categorization approach (e.g.)
Shy adolescents often devote themselves totally to a hobby to help distract them from the loneliness brought on by their shyness. Sometimes they are able to become friends with others who share their hobby. But if they lose interest in that hobby, their loneliness may be exacerbated. So developing an all-consuming hobby is not a successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness.
Which one of the following assumptions does the argument depend on?
A) Eventually, shy adolescents are going to want a wider circle of friends than is provided by their hobby.
B) No successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness ever intensifies that loneliness.
C) Shy adolescents will lose interest in their hobbies if they do not make friends through their engagement in those hobbies.
D) Some other strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness is generally more successful than is developing an all-consuming hobby.
E) Shy adolescents devote themselves to hobbies mainly because they want to make friends.
B) No successful strategy for overcoming adolescent loneliness ever intensifies that loneliness.
Which one of the following, if true, most supports the argument?
Strengthen
No tax reduction package that would greatly advantage the majority of citizens would fail to be implemented.
Advantage -> Implemented
A magic skeptic conducted three trials: In the first, the magician was videotaped and no sleight of hand was found. In the second, the skeptic supplied a standard deck of cards herself. In the third, the skeptic participated in the trick. Each time, the trick worked. The skeptic concluded that the magician uses neither sleight of hand, nor a trick deck, nor a planted "volunteer" to achieve the effect.
Fails to consider that the magician might not always use the same method.
In 3 words or fewer:
In addition, Marshall used sociological and psychological statistics - presented in expert testimony, for example, about the psychological impact of enforced segregation - as a means of transforming constitutional law by persuading the courts that certain discriminatory laws produced public harms in violation of constitutional principles. This tactic, while often effective, has been criticized by some legal scholars as a pragmatic attempt to give judges nonlegal material with which to fill gaps in their justifications for decisions where the purely legal principles appear inconclusive.
Critic: Although some people claim it is inconsistent to support freedom of speech and also support legislation limiting the amount of violence in TV programs, it is not. We can limit TV program content because the damage done by violent programs is more harmful than the decrease in freedom of speech that would result from the limitations envisioned by the legislation.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the critic's reasoning?
A) In evaluating legislation that would impinge on a basic freedom, we should consider the consequences of not passing the legislation.
B) One can support freedom of speech while at the same time recognizing that it can sometimes be overridden by other interests.
C) When facing a choice between restricting freedom of speech or not, we must decide based on what would make the greatest number of people the happiest.
D) If the exercise of a basic freedom leads to some harm, then the exercise of that freedom should be restricted.
E) In some circumstances, we should tolerate regulations that impinge on a basic freedom.
B) One can support freedom of speech while at the same time recognizing that it can sometimes be overridden by other interests.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the jurist's statements?
Inference (~MSS)