Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: One group says a law is too detailed, and another says it's too blurry; the author thinks that because they can't both be right, the law must be perfect.

Conclusion: The tax reform legislation is framed exactly as it should be.

Reasoning: Political groups on the right and left offer contradictory criticisms (too specific vs. too vague), and since a statement cannot be both, the criticisms must be wrong.

Analysis: The author is making a huge assumption: that if two people disagree in opposite ways, the truth must be exactly in the middle. This is a 'Goldilocks' fallacy. Just because the law isn't *both* too specific and too vague doesn't mean it isn't one of them. For the conclusion to hold, the author must assume that the existence of contradictory criticisms is a reliable indicator of quality. A necessary assumption here is that the critics' opinions are actually mutually exclusive in a way that invalidates both, rather than one side simply being correct.

Passage Stimulus

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18.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Correct Answer
E
E is required. If it’s possible that some provisions are overly specific and others are overly vague, then both criticisms could be accurate without showing the proposal is “just right.” Negation test: If the legislation is a mix, the reformer’s conclusion no longer follows.
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