Flawed ReasoningDiff: Easy
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: A politician argues that overall inflation can't be low because his own expenses for things like gas and bread have skyrocketed.
Conclusion: The claim that consumer price increases averaged less than 3 percent over the last year is incorrect.
Reasoning: The politician points to several specific items—gasoline, insurance, newspapers, propane, and bread—that all saw price increases ranging from 10 to 50 percent.
Analysis: The politician's argument is a classic example of a sampling error. He attempts to disprove a broad economic average by citing a few specific examples that are significantly higher than that average. However, an average accounts for all items, including those that may have stayed the same price or even decreased. Look for an answer that points out the politician's failure to consider the entire 'basket' of goods used to calculate the average. He is assuming his personal shopping list is representative of the entire economy, which is a logical leap.
Conclusion: The claim that consumer price increases averaged less than 3 percent over the last year is incorrect.
Reasoning: The politician points to several specific items—gasoline, insurance, newspapers, propane, and bread—that all saw price increases ranging from 10 to 50 percent.
Analysis: The politician's argument is a classic example of a sampling error. He attempts to disprove a broad economic average by citing a few specific examples that are significantly higher than that average. However, an average accounts for all items, including those that may have stayed the same price or even decreased. Look for an answer that points out the politician's failure to consider the entire 'basket' of goods used to calculate the average. He is assuming his personal shopping list is representative of the entire economy, which is a logical leap.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage12.The reasoning in the politician's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
Correct Answer
D
The argument uses a narrow, cherry-picked set of price increases—some anecdotal—to generalize about the overall average consumer price increase, which may be unrepresentative and thus unreliable.
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