LOGICAL REASONING (Flaw)
1. The director of a secondary school
where many students were having
severe academic problems impaneled a
committee to study the matter. The
committee reported that these students
were having academic problems
because they spent large amounts of
time on school sports and too little time
for studying. The director then
prohibited all students who were having
academic problems from taking part in
sports in which they were active. He
stated that this would ensure that such
students would do well academically.
The reasoning on which the director
bases his statement is not sound
because he fails to establish that
(A) Some students who spend time on
sports do not have academic
problems
(B) All students who do well
academically do so because of time
saved by not participating in sports
(C) At least some of the time the
students will save by not
participating in sports will be spent
on solving their academic problems
(D) No students who do well
academically spend time on sports
(E) The quality of the school’s sports
program would not suffer as a result
of the ban
2. Mayor Smith, one of our few
government officials with a record of
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outspoken, informed and consistent
opposition to nuclear power plant
construction projects, has now declared
herself in favor of building the nuclear
power plant at Littletown. If someone
with her past antinuclear record now
favors building this power plant, then
there is good reason to believe that it
will be safe and therefore should be
built.
The argument is vulnerable to criticism
on which one of the following grounds?
(A) It overlooks the possibility that not
all those who fail to speak out on
issues of nuclear power are
necessarily opposed to it.
(B) It assumes without warrant that the
qualities enabling a person to be
elected to public office confer on
that person a grasp of the scientific
principles upon which technical
decisions are based.
(C) It fails to establish that a consistent
and outspoken opposition is
necessarily an informed opposition.
(D) It leads to the further but
unacceptable conclusion that any
project favored by Mayor Smith
should be sanctioned simply on the
basis of her having spoken out in
favor of it.
(E) It gives no indication of either the
basis of Mayor Smith’s former
opposition to nuclear power plant
 construction or the reasons for her
support for the Littletown project.
3. Safety inspector: The number of
laboratory samples of rabies virus sent
through the university delivery service
has recently grown dangerous high. We
need to limit use of this service.
Biologist: There is no need for a limit.
The university delivery service has been
handling rabies virus samples for 20
years with no accidents.
containing large amounts of additives
was observed by researchers trained to
assess the presence or absence of
behavior problems. The children were
then placed on a low-additive diet for
several weeks, after which they were
observed again. Originally nearly 60
percent of the children exhibited
behavior problems; after the change in
diet only 30 percent did so. On the
basis of these data, it can be concluded
that food additives can contribute to
behavior problems in hyperactive
children.

As a rebuttal of the safety inspector’s The evidence cited fails to establish the
claim, the biologist’s reasoning is flawed conclusion because
in that it
(A) There is no evidence that the
(A) fails to explain why the number of reduction in behavior problems was
samples sent through the service proportionate to the reduction in
has increased food additive intake.
(B) fails to focus specifically on the (B) There is no way to know what
issue of rabies virus samples changes would have occurred
(C) overlooks the possibility that there without the change of diet, since
has been a change in the only children who changed to a
hazardousness of the rabies virus low-additive diet were studied.
samples themselves (C) Exactly how many children
(D) offers no defense of the university’s exhibited behavior problems after
need for continued delivery of the change in diet cannot be
rabies virus samples determined, since the size of the
(E) does not address the potential for group studied is not precisely given.
harm that is posed by the recent (D) There is no evidence that the
increase in the number of samples behavior of some of the children
sent through the service was unaffected by additives.
4. A large group of hyperactive children (E) The evidence is consistent with the
whose regular diets included food claim that some children exhibit
(F) more frequent behavior problems than they had exhibited when first
after being on the low-additive diet observed.

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5. Office manager: I will not order
recycled paper for the office. Our
letters to clients must make a good
impression, so we cannot print them on
inferior paper.
Stationery supplier: Recycled paper is
not necessarily inferior. In fact, from
the beginning, the finest paper has
been made of recycled material. It was
only in the 1850s that paper began to
be made from wood fiber, and then only
because there were no longer enough
rags to meet the demand for paper.
In which one of the following ways does
the stationer’s response fail to address
the office manager’s objection to
recycled paper?
(A) It does not recognize that the office
manager’s prejudice against
recycled paper stems from
ignorance.
(B) It uses irrelevant facts to justify a
claim about the disputed product.
(C) It assumes that the office manager
is concerned about environmental
issues.
(D) It presupposes that the office
manager understands the basic
technology of paper manufacturing.
(E) It ignores the office manager’s
legitimate concern about quality.
6. Eugenia: Reliable tests have shown that
Koolair brand refrigerators are the
best-made of any of the major brands
because they last longer, and, on the
whole, require fewer repairs than do
refrigerators of any other major brand.
Neil: That is impossible. I have owned
refrigerators of several different major
brands, including Koolair, and the
Koolair needed more repairs than did
any of the others.
The reasoning in Neil’s response is
flawed because he:
(A) Uses a different notion of a
product’s quality from that used by
Eugenia
(B) Contradicts Eugenia’s claim on the
basis of a snap judgment and
without making any attempt to
offer supporting argumentation
(C) Rejects a generalization on the basis
of a single negative instance when
that generalization has reasonable
support and is not universal
(D) Uses a pretense of authority in a
technical field as the only support
for his claim
(E) Concludes that what holds true of
each member of a group taken
individually must also hold true of
that group taken collectively
7. Large discount chains can make a profit
even while offering low prices, because they
buy goods in large quantities at favorable
cost. This creates a problem for small
retailers. If they try to retain their

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 customers by lowering prices to match
those of large discount chains, the result is a
lower profit margin. But small retailers can
retain their customer base without lowering
prices if they offer exceptional service.
Hence, small retailers that are forced to
complete with large discount chains must
offer exceptional service in order to retain
their level of profitability.
The reasoning is flawed because it fails to
take into account the possibility that
(A) Not all large discount chains do in fact
make a profit
(B) Some large discount chains have lower
profit margins than do some small
retailers
(C) Small retailers are often motivated by
things other than the desire for profit
(D) Not all small retailers are forced to
compete with large discount chains
(E) Exceptional service is not the only
reason customers prefer small retail
stores
9. Linguist: Only if a sentence can be
8. Marion knows that the bridge on her usual
route is closed and that, unless she takes
the train instead of driving, she can get to
work on time only by leaving at least 45
minutes early. She must go to her
neighborhood bank before leaving for work,
however, and the bank will not be open in
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time for her to do so if she leaves 45
minutes early. Therefore, since she hates
taking the train, Marion cannot avoid being
late for work.
The reasoning in the argument is flawed
because the argument
(A) Mistakes a situation that almost
certainly affects many people for one
that affects a particular person alone
(B) Ignores the fact that people often know
something is the case without
considering all the consequences that
follow from its being the case
(C) Assumes without justification that
because people generally have an
interest in avoiding a given result, any
particular person will have an interest in
avoiding that result
(D) Treats evidence that someone will
adopt a particular course of action as
though that evidence excluded the
possibility of an alternative course of
action
(E) Overlooks the possibility that someone
might occasionally adopt a given course
of action without having a good reason
for doing so
diagrammed is it grammatical. Any
grammatical sentence is recognized as
grammatical by speakers of its language.
Speaker X’s sentence can be diagrammed.
So, speaker X’s sentence will be recognized
as grammatical by speakers of its language.
 The linguist’s reasoning is flawed because it prepared messages and recordings on
fails to consider the possibility that spacecraft
(E) Overlooks the immense probability that
(A) Most people are unable to diagram
most star systems are uninhabited
sentences correctly
(B) Some ungrammatical sentences are
diagrammable
11. In a recent poll of chief executive officers
(C) All sentences recognized as grammatical
(CEOs) of 125 large corporations, the
can be diagrammed
overwhelming majority claimed that
(D) All grammatical sentences can be
employee training and welfare is of the
diagrammed
same high priority as customer satisfaction.
(E) Some ungrammatical sentences are
So, the popular belief that the top
recognized as ungrammatical
management of large corporations behaves
indifferently to the needs and aspirations of
employees is unfounded.
10. Television allows us to transmit images of
ourselves that propagate into space. The The argument is most vulnerable to
earliest of these transmissions have by now criticism on the grounds that it
reached all of our neighboring star systems.
(A) Fails to define adequately the term “top
None of these transmissions, so far as we
management”
know, has been recognized; we have yet to
(B) Presumes, without giving justification,
receive any messages of extraterrestrial
that one is not indifferent to something
origin. We must conclude that there is no
that one considers a top priority
extraterrestrial intelligence in any of our
(C) Presumes, without giving justification,
neighboring star systems.
that the CEOs’ priorities tend to be
The reasoning in the argument is misplaced
questionable because the argument (D) Presumes, without giving justification,
that that the CEOs’ claims are reflected
(A) Fails to provide an adequate definition
in actual practice
of the word “messages”
(E) Makes a generalization based on an
(B) Infers that there is no extraterrestrial
unrepresentative sample
intelligence in neighboring star systems
from the lack of proof that there is
(C) Assigns too little importance to the
possibility that there is extraterrestrial
intelligence beyond our neighboring
star systems
(D) Neglects to mention that some
governments have sent meticulously

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