Parallel ReasoningDiff: Hardest

Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Professor Alban's department has a rule: you can't teach more than one beginner class at a time. Therefore, Alban won't be teaching two beginner classes next term.

Conclusion: Professor Alban will not be teaching two introductory-level French classes next term.

Reasoning: There is a departmental rule forbidding anyone from teaching more than one introductory class per term, and the only language classes available next term are advanced.

Analysis: This argument uses a general restrictive rule ('no more than one') to prove that a specific violation of that rule ('both' or 'two') cannot happen. Interestingly, the stimulus provides two separate reasons why the conclusion is true: the general rule and the specific fact that next term's language classes are advanced. When looking for a parallel, prioritize an argument that uses a formal rule to exclude a specific possibility, especially one that might provide multiple overlapping reasons to reach that same conclusion.

Passage Stimulus

Passage Redacted

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19.

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

Correct Answer
D
D uses two independent rules—new buildings with public space are exempt for two years, and all new buildings in Alton are exempt for five. The specific building is both new-with-public-space and in Alton, so either rule alone ensures it won’t be taxed next year. That mirrors the stimulus’s two-independent-reasons structure.
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