#12 - The foreign minister of Zeria announced today that her

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Bruin96!

The causal relationship in answer choice (D) can better be represented as:

Cause: socializing with coworkers is imprudent
Effect: Armand declined Helen's invitation

"Maria" is another coworker and she is equivalent to the "other countries" that have worse human rights records in the stimulus. The answer choice didn't need to name Maria specifically (it could have just left it at "another coworker" but it doesn't matter that it did name her specifically. The basic gist is the same. Armand declined Helen's invitation because he said socializing with coworkers is imprudent, but he has socialized with other coworkers, so that cannot be the only reason he declined Helen's invitation. That is very similar to the stimulus which is that Zeria severed ties with Nandalo because they said Nandalo violated human rights, but Zeria maintains ties with other countries that violate human rights, so that cannot be the only reason they severed ties with Nandalo.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[annabelle.swift]

I understand C when I read it, but is there a way to diagram the conditional relationship to check my understanding?

From "although hunger... in any other way," I got    food readily obtained     hunger could be sole cause.
But from "in this case food... by his hunger," I got    food readily obtained    hunger could be sole cause.

However, this second diagram seems to be a Mistaken Negation. What did I do wrong?

[Robert Carroll]

annabelle.swift,

Answer choice (C) is a wrong answer. You diagrammed it and it appears to be a Mistaken Negation. If the stimulus were a Mistaken Negation, that would be a problem - your diagram would be apparently showing it to be a correct answer. But that's not the situation. The stimulus isn't a Mistaken Negation, so if answer choice (C) diagrams as a Mistaken Negation, that just seems like more confirmation that it's wrong. In fact, I think it accomplished exactly what you wanted - showing via a diagram that answer choice (C) doesn't do what the stimulus does.

Robert Carroll

[lsatep2024]

Could someone clarify (A)? I'm still struggling to distinguish that from (D)

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Could someone clarify (A)? I'm still struggling to distinguish that from (D)

Hi!

Please refer to the explanation on page 1 of this thread: viewtopic.php?p=23216#p23216. What is it in particular that you are struggling with between A and D?

[lsatep2024]

I understand why (D) is correct, but when first solving and looking at the explanation I am not sure how the reasoning in A is not being attacked.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lsatep,

In the stimulus, someone (specifically, the foreign minister) gives a causal explanation (Nandalo's violations of human rights) for her country's specific action (severing diplomatic relations). Even though the minister is giving an explanation for her country's actions rather than her own actions, as a representative of the country, she is basically arguing on behalf of the country, so they are aligned.

Then, the fact that the reason/cause that she cited (violation of human rights) does not cause her country to act the same way in other cases is used to attack the reason that the minister gave as the exclusive cause. In other words, the argument uses the fact that the stated cause has occurred without the effect in some instances to attack the causal relationship that the minister gave.

In Answer A, we have a different situation. Henry's parents are not giving a causal explanation for their own behavior (which would be similar to the foreign minister). Instead they are providing a causal explanation for why Henry should eat breakfast (specifically, the belief that not eating breakfast would be bad for his health, and therefore eating breakfast would help prevent bad health).

For Answer A to be parallel, we'd want examples showing the cause (eating breakfast) without the effect (prevent bad health). Instead, we simply get the fact that Henry's parents do not eat breakfast themselves. We do not know what effect, if any, this has on their health. This, however, does not mean that Henry's parents don't believe that not eating breakfast would cause bad health. They may just care far more about their son's health than their own health. While this may show some hypocrisy on the part of Henry's parents, this does not suggest that their reason for insisting Henry eat breakfast is anything other than the one given.