#6- Hana said she was not going to invite her brothers to

[actionjackson]

Initially, this question and credited answer choice had me a bit confused and I was hoping someone would provide some assistance regarding why the choice I had chosen was incorrect and the credited answer correct. During my analysis of the stimulus I had identified the premises as: "Hana said she wasn't going to invite her brothers to her birthday party. Hana received a gift (a recording) at her party. Hana's brothers had planned to give her that recording." I had identified the conclusion in this stimulus as: "at least some of her brothers must have been among the guests at the birthday party." At that time I had moved onto the question stem which I had classified as: flaw in the reasoning. Going through the answer choices, I left B as a contender and incorrectly chose C as my response. I thought of C as describing the flaw(s): uncertain use of a term or concept, as well as moving from the prescriptive to descriptive. I had eliminated D (which I believe describes either a causal error or an error of composition), however going through the question again I think I understand why that choice is correct. Is it because the argument contained in the stimulus does not conclusively establish that Hana's brothers could have been the only party goers who brought her the recording as a gift? For example someone else could have bought and brought the same gift to the party, or her brothers could have bought the gift but not attended the party (maybe have someone else bring the recording)?

[David Boyle]

Initially, this question and credited answer choice had me a bit confused and I was hoping someone would provide some assistance regarding why the choice I had chosen was incorrect and the credited answer correct. During my analysis of the stimulus I had identified the premises as: "Hana said she wasn't going to invite her brothers to her birthday party. Hana received a gift (a recording) at her party. Hana's brothers had planned to give her that recording." I had identified the conclusion in this stimulus as: "at least some of her brothers must have been among the guests at the birthday party." At that time I had moved onto the question stem which I had classified as: flaw in the reasoning. Going through the answer choices, I left B as a contender and incorrectly chose C as my response. I thought of C as describing the flaw(s): uncertain use of a term or concept, as well as moving from the prescriptive to descriptive. I had eliminated D (which I believe describes either a causal error or an error of composition), however going through the question again I think I understand why that choice is correct. Is it because the argument contained in the stimulus does not conclusively establish that Hana's brothers could have been the only party goers who brought her the recording as a gift? For example someone else could have bought and brought the same gift to the party, or her brothers could have bought the gift but not attended the party (maybe have someone else bring the recording)?

Hello actionjackson,

Answer D might be closer to a Mistaken Reversal: just because "If brothers give a gift, it'll be a recording", that doesn't mean that "If someone gives a recording as a gift, it must be the brothers."
"Is it because the argument contained in the stimulus does not conclusively establish that Hana's brothers could have been the only party goers who brought her the recording as a gift? For example someone else could have bought and brought the same gift to the party, or her brothers could have bought the gift but not attended the party (maybe have someone else bring the recording)?" Yes.

Hope this helps,
David

[jgray]

I had a hard time trying diagramming and understanding this argument. My prephrase was, "someone else could have given her the recording." I didn't see it in the ACs.
Party--->No brothers
She told her brothers that she wanted the recording
Got a recording at Party----> So at least one of her brothers were there.

Thanks

[Kristina Moen]

Hi jgray,

Excellent job diagramming and spotting the flaw in the argument. You're right that someone else (not her brothers) could have planned to give her the recording. On a Flaw in the Reasoning question, you have two jobs. Spot the flaw (which you did) and select the answer choice that describes the flaw. This is where studying Flaw in the Reasoning questions is very important, as the way an answer choice is worded can be confusing at first glance.

Answer choice (D) says " fails to establish that something true of some people is true of only those people." What does that mean exactly? Well, the stimulus said "Her brothers had planned to give her that recording." Okay, that's true of the brothers. But it failed to establish that "Her brothers were the only people who planned to give her that recording." Just like you said - someone else could have planned to give her the recording! In the future, if you see this answer choice ("fails to establish that something true of some people is true of only those people") remember this question.