Flawed ReasoningDiff: Easy
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: A student thinks the university's new rules against drinking won't work just because old rules didn't work before.
Conclusion: The university's new penalties for on-campus drinking will definitely be unsuccessful.
Reasoning: The university has tried to stop drinking many times in the past, and none of those previous attempts worked.
Analysis: The student is falling into the trap of assuming that because a goal hasn't been achieved yet, it can never be achieved. This ignores the possibility that the new penalties are different in kind or severity from the failed past attempts. Look for an answer that highlights this failure to consider the specific merits of the current plan versus historical ones. Just because you've failed to bake a cake five times doesn't mean the sixth recipe is doomed to fail, too.
Conclusion: The university's new penalties for on-campus drinking will definitely be unsuccessful.
Reasoning: The university has tried to stop drinking many times in the past, and none of those previous attempts worked.
Analysis: The student is falling into the trap of assuming that because a goal hasn't been achieved yet, it can never be achieved. This ignores the possibility that the new penalties are different in kind or severity from the failed past attempts. Look for an answer that highlights this failure to consider the specific merits of the current plan versus historical ones. Just because you've failed to bake a cake five times doesn't mean the sixth recipe is doomed to fail, too.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage1.The reasoning in the student's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
Correct Answer
D
It identifies the core flaw: the argument ignores that the new penalties might be relevantly different from prior attempts, so past failures don’t guarantee these will fail.
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