#18 - It is impossible to do science without measuring

[lilmissunshine]

Hello,

I was wondering how answer (A) and (B) are different. My diagram for the stimulus is as follows:

Science Measuring
Measuring Units
S M U Arbitrary

(A): Performing difficult music Musical skill Long hour Tedious
(B): Run business Advertise Expensive

Why is (A) correct but not (B)? Thank you very much.

[Jennifer Janowsky]

Hi!

This is a great question, and it took me a while to spot the difference. The biggest difference here is sort of a trick. Option (B) states "You have to advertise to run an expanding business," however makes the logical jump that advertisement is necessary to run a business at all. In reality, the conclusion should be "is expensive to run an expanding business." That's all you were missing here!

[lilmissunshine]

Thank you so much Jennifer! That was really tricky

[dreadpr69]

I really hate that I'm fighting this answer, but why does it equate playing difficult music with the ability to perform difficult music?

When I read this, I thought that the conclusion "playing difficult music is tedious" was different from what was mentioned in the support "long training is tedious and required to play difficult music."

However, I didn't think that playing difficult music and the ability to play difficult music were the same thing, and I don't see how they are equated.

For example, if it requires long, tedious training in order to be a scratch golfer, that doesn't necessarily mean scratch golf is tedious because after the tedious training it may be very easy for a scratch golfer to play at that level.

Moreover, this flaw in the reasoning is different from the flaw in the reasoning in the stimulus.

The stimulus says that science is arbitrary because it relies on measurements that are arbitrary.

Thie correct answer says that doing something is tedious because the steps required to gain the ability to do that thing are tedious.

How are these two things the same thing?

Like obviously A has to be right but where I am going wrong? This is driving me crazy

[Robert Carroll]

dread,

I think you're identifying what's wrong with the stimulus and answer choice (A) at the same time. Science might not be arbitrary just because one of its requirements is arbitrary. Performing difficult music might not be tedious just because one of its requirements is tedious.

Each argument involves conditional reasoning. The stimulus gives requirements for science, and then claims that science will have some feature of one of its necessary conditions. The same is true in answer choice (A).

I think you're making far too much of the topic of answer choice (A), which is an "ability" as you say. Parallel Reasoning/Parallel Flaw answer choices do not have to parallel the topic of the stimulus.

Robert Carroll

[cd1010]

Could I get help on figuring out why D is incorrect? I identified the flaw when I read my stimulus and was down to A and D. (Side question: When I first did this, my pre-phrase was "you can't draw the chain backwards". Is that not precise enough?)

For D, I diagrammed:
Manager --> Evaluating People --> Subjective
C: Because people resent being evaluated subjectively, people resent managers.

I thought it could also match the stimulus, because we're getting a statement (resentment) about the final necessary conclusion, and then using that to make a conclusion that the same thing (resentment) applies about the first sufficient condition. So, I thought this was also similar to the stimulus: description of final necessary conclusion (selection of unit is arbitrary), to say first sufficient is the same (therefore science is arbitrary).

[Luke Haqq]

Hi cd1010!

You comment,

I identified the flaw when I read my stimulus and was down to A and D.

Just to clarify, this is a parallel reasoning question, but the question stem doesn't indicate that there's a flaw.

Regarding answer choice (D), the problem with that answer choice is that it brings resentment into the conclusion, but resentment isn't mentioned in the other sentences. As a consequence, there isn't a way to link resentment to the other conditional reasoning. We want something in the form A B C D that then concludes A D.

[cd1010]

Thanks for the response! If I could clarify further -- doesn't "tedious" work similarly as an element in the conclusion of A, the same way that "Resentment" does in D? Is D wrong because the language of D introduces something that sounds like an implicit causal statement? And that's why "long hours of practice are tedious" is more analogous to "selection of unit of measure... is arbitrary", but not analogous to "people resent managers"?

[Dana D]

Hey Cd,

The stimulus is saying science as a whole is arbitrary because one of it's required steps (measuring) involves arbitrariness. Answer choice (A) similarly attributes a descriptor (tediousness) to a larger concept (developing musical skills).

Answer choice (D) says that a necessary requirement of being a manger is evaluating (M evaluating) and that because evaluation is subjective and managers must evaluate, this is why people resent managers. This answer choice is missing the same pattern that (A) and the stimulus have. If answer choice (D) was attributing subjectivity to managing as a whole, this would be more in line with the stimulus, since it would then say that one aspect of managing (evaluations) are subjective and managers must evaluate, therefore managing is subjective.

Hope that helps!