Argument EvaluationDiff: Hardest
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: A person was late to a meeting because their usual parking spot was closed, and it took 15 minutes to find another one.
Conclusion: The closure of the front parking area was the sole reason the businessperson was late to the meeting.
Reasoning: It took 15 minutes to find a new spot after discovering the closure, and the lateness was only by a few minutes.
Analysis: The businessperson assumes that if the maintenance hadn't happened, they would have arrived on time. However, we don't know if they would have been late anyway for other reasons, like traffic or leaving home late. To evaluate this, we need to know how much 'buffer time' they had before the 15-minute delay occurred. If they arrived at the lot with only 5 minutes to spare, the 15-minute delay caused the lateness; if they were already 20 minutes late when they reached the lot, the closure didn't actually change their status.
Conclusion: The closure of the front parking area was the sole reason the businessperson was late to the meeting.
Reasoning: It took 15 minutes to find a new spot after discovering the closure, and the lateness was only by a few minutes.
Analysis: The businessperson assumes that if the maintenance hadn't happened, they would have arrived on time. However, we don't know if they would have been late anyway for other reasons, like traffic or leaving home late. To evaluate this, we need to know how much 'buffer time' they had before the 15-minute delay occurred. If they arrived at the lot with only 5 minutes to spare, the 15-minute delay caused the lateness; if they were already 20 minutes late when they reached the lot, the closure didn't actually change their status.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage23.The answer to which one of the following questions would be most useful to know in order to evaluate the reasoning in the businessperson's argument?
Correct Answer
C
(C) directly probes the key assumption by asking about usual parking patterns when the front area is open. If parking is typically easy then, the closure likely caused the added search time and lateness; if it’s usually hard anyway, the closure may not be the real cause.
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