#11 - Biologist: Humans have five fingers because we

[angelsfan0055]

so I chose A soon after I read the argument and was disappointed when it was not the answer.
My thought was that the stimulus was conflating "content" with usefulness which I didn't see as congruent. Therefore, to make it more likely that we'd just be as content, by saying that "everyone is equally content with current fingers" would strengthen the argument.

clearly this is not the case and I missed something, and so would appreciate insight

[Robert Carroll]

angelsfan,

Your prephrase is spot on, but your prephrase is also exactly what answer choice (C) says! If you didn't read all the answers and simply selected answer choice (A) because you saw something good about it at first, that's a lesson to read all five answer choices, something we at PowerScore always suggest for LR and RC.

Answer choice (A) does not match your prephrase well at all, either. You wanted to connect contentment and utility. Answer choice (A) doesn't talk about utility at all! So your prephrase actually should have made answer choice (A) less attractive.

Further, answer choice (A) establishes that everyone is equally content with the present configuration. From the stimulus, that configuration is just as useful as a six-fingered configuration. Why would people being at the same level of contentment about the present configuration say anything about their equality of contentment, or level of contentment, with another configuration? Well, if contentment correlates with usefulness, that might work...but then answer choice (A) doesn't talk about that, like I said, and answer choice (C) does everything we want.

So, ultimately, your prephrase itself shows why answer choice (A) is wrong.

Robert Carroll