#19 - Fishing columnist: When an independent research firm compared the five best-selling baits, it

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning, Except. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[alex.r.berson@gmail.com]

Hi there,

I'm confused as to why (E) is not correct. The stimulus' conclusion only talks about trout so I thought a flaw AC that discusses other types of fish would be not necessary. I get why (D) is right but I don't see that as more flawed than (E).

[RottenPJ]

Hi there,

I'm confused as to why (E) is not correct. The stimulus' conclusion only talks about trout so I thought a flaw AC that discusses other types of fish would be not necessary. I get why (D) is right but I don't see that as more flawed than (E).

Hey Alex,

Not a mod or anything... but since they haven't responded in what looks like 2 weeks and I also chose E as the wrong answer I can explain this one to the best of my ability.

E basically says that they overlooked the fact that what works to catch one kind of fish, might not work to catch all the other kinds.

While this whole argument focuses on trout, which is a type of fish each trout has subtypes. The only subtype of trout fished for in the test was speckled trout, so this same bait might not work on other variations of trout such as rainbow, cutthroat, etc. So this is definitely something that IS a flaw in the argument, and since the stem says EXCEPT you would NOT choose this one.

Not sure if you got confused the same way as me but I read "other kinds" as completely different species of fish and neglected the idea that there are sub variations of fish within each species, seeing the argument was only talking about trout I chose this thinking it was not a flaw.

Hope this helps.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Alex,

PJ's explanation is exactly the key to Answer E.

You always want to pay careful attention to the wording in the conclusion of an argument, especially if any words/terms change from the premises. (This happens quite frequently in LR arguments.)

Here, noticing the switch from "speckled trout" in the premise to the more general "trout" in the conclusion is really helpful for spotting one of the several flaws in this argument, in this case the flaw mentioned in Answer E.

What may work for "speckled trout" may not work for other types/varieties of trout.

The use of the words "that work well with a particular variety of fish may not work well with other varieties of that fish" (my emphasis) in Answer E is critical to this answer because if this answer had been about completely different species of fish, then it would be outside the scope of the argument and therefore not a flaw to overlook this.

Answer D is the correct answer because it does not contain a flaw in the argument. It does not matter if two best selling brands are equally effective so long as they are not the most effective. The premise states that the Benton bait was the most successful of the five best-selling brands tested, so the argument does not overlook the possibility of ties among the other best-selling brands.