#23 - A gram of the artificial sweetener aspartame is much

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[poneil]

The correct answer doesn't seem to be parallel to the actual conclusion about developing a preference for these products, though it does seem parallel to the initial premises and intermediate conclusion about these soft drinks being even sweeter. Is the last sentence of the stimulus not relevant or am I misunderstanding this question entirely?

[kithly]

The correct answer doesn't seem to be parallel to the actual conclusion about developing a preference for these products, though it does seem parallel to the initial premises and intermediate conclusion about these soft drinks being even sweeter. Is the last sentence of the stimulus not relevant or am I misunderstanding this question entirely?

I think the flaw has to do with relative vs. absolute quantities? It's assuming that a drink sweetened with aspartame will be even sweeter than a regular soft drink just because a gram of aspartame is sweeter than a gram of sugar. But maybe aspartame-sweetened drinks only have 3 grams of aspartame in them whereas regular soft drinks have 5 grams of sugar. So it matches C - a single nickel is worth more than a single penny. But that doesn't mean a piggy bank with 3 nickels in it has more money than a piggy bank with 100 pennies.

[Brook Miscoski]

Poneil and Kithly,

This is a parallel the flawed reasoning question. As you know, there are various techniques. The most mechanical technique is to match up argument parts. I prefer to begin with a more general approach, since the hypermechanical approach is time consuming.The hypermechanical approach may also lead to confusion, since there are multiple flaws in this stimulus, and the right answer only parallels one of them. Poneil, you are absolutely correct that the right answer choice makes no attempt to parallel the last sentence of the stimulus, so the mechanical approach would lead to confusion.

Reading through the stimulus, my reaction was that they didn't have to use the same amount of aspartame. Also, maybe people who drink aspartame decide it is gross rather than learning to like it. So I will look for that in the choices.

(A) Stimulus was not about changing preferences. Wrong.
(B) Stimulus was about switching between alternatives, not a mixture. Wrong.
(C) I am keeping this because whose bank is bigger? Could be the same kind of "amounts" mixup.
(D) I am keeping this because the stimulus did assert why people would have different preferences.
(E) Stimulus did not involve an individual's perceptions about other people. Wrong.

Okay, we're on a good track, down to two choices. What now?

(C) This is the same kind of mixup as the stimulus, because drinks with aspartame might have less sweetener, just like the piggy bank with nickels might have fewer coins.
(D) This is different from the stimulus. The stimulus assumes that people who drink aspartame are definitely getting more sweetener. So to be parallel, (D) should say that Stephanie during her life has had more hot days than Katherine did, rather than just create a possibility. Also, the stimulus indicates that an Individual who drinks aspartame will like sweeter things more than less sweet things, without comparing that Individual to anyone else. So to be right, the stimulus should say that Stephanie had more hot days than cooler days, and should not compare her to anyone else.

So, that's how I would approach this. Quick pass to focus on the general types of flaws that occurred, and then a more detailed comparison to tell which remaining choice is the best match to the stimulus.

[AWash180]

So, considering that the stimulus contains multiple flaws, how would you prephrase this question?

[James Finch]

Hi A. Wash,

Depending on the stimulus and question type, some prephrases will be more general, while others will be quite specific. In flaw questions, it's necessary to identify the flaw or flaws, and then see which answer choice corresponds with the flaw or one of the flaws; sometimes, usually on the easier questions, this is given as the clear, general definition of the flaw, while other, more difficult ones will use very obtuse language to try and obscure the correct answer choice. Parallel flaw questions naturally fall into the second category, as they require careful reading of subtle differences between the answer choices as well as an understanding of the stimulus to answer correctly.

Here, the two issues in the stimulus are that it first assumes that the same amounts of aspartame and sugar are always used and second, assumes that people who drink aspartame-sweetened soda will grow to prefer sweet products. Either one, or both, of those issues could show up in the correct answer choice here, and the way the question stem is written subtly reflects that: we're looking for flawed reasoning that "is most similar to flawed reasoning" in the stimulus, not the flawed reasoning in the stimulus. So we have to prepared with the prephrase to see only one of the two issues in the correct answer choice.

Hope this clears things up!

[Moris_cn]

Could someone explain (D) in more details? I'm still confused why it is not parallel to the second flaw in the stimulus.

[Malila Robinson]

Hi Moris_cn,
Answer D would need a sentence that said something like: Thus people who grow up in a place with hot summer weather will develop a preference for weather that is hot. That sounds like it would would make it better match the flaw in the stimulus.
Hope that helps!
-Malila

[younghoon27]

I got the answer correct on my second run through but I thought it was an error of Composition and Division that was most similar. Is this the wrong?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Younghoon,

It's not quite composition and division. An error of composition and division would say something about how because part of a meal is sweet, the whole meal is sweet. Or because the meal is tasty, the drink is tasty. The error here is that we just don't know the amount used in each case. We know aspartame and sugar have different sweetness values---one gram of aspartame is sweeter than one gram of sugar. But the issue is we don't know how many grams are used per cup. The amount used could vary, so the strength of sweet could similarly vary.

Hope that helps
Rachael