#7 - John: In 80 percent of car accidents, the driver at fault was within five miles of home, so

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Method of Reasoning - Numbers and Percentages - Cause and Effect. The correct answer choice is (A).

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

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[menkenj]

By pointing out a weakness in John's argument which calls into question his conclusion, I can see why (a) is right. The initial statistic by John is not enough to prove his conclusion because of the additional evidence Judy provided.

Answer choice B is very attractive, however. What would Judy's answer have to look like in order to make (B) the correct answer choice?

thanks!
Julie

[Adam Tyson]

There could be a few ways that someone might restate evidence in different terms. One such case might be if Judy had said "in other words, only 20 percent of all car accidents were either not the driver's fault or were more than 5 miles from the driver's home." Another might be "so no more than 20% of all car accidents are the fault of someone other than the driver."

[Snomen]

Can anyone please explain why D is incorrect? My reasoning is that D would be correct if Judy would say something like: You can have a long trip within 5 miles ...

[Robert Carroll]

Snomen,

Does John have that assumption? That would be a False Dilemma - John would think that every trip is either within 5 miles of home or a long trip. John doesn't make that assumption, though. John compares the safety in 5-miles-or-less trips and long trips, but nowhere in what John said is there an assumption that every trip is one or the other.

Also, you said something that's not quite what answer choice (D) says - answer choice (D) is claiming that John's assumption is that anything not a 5-mile-or-less trip is a long trip. That's very different from asserting that no trip can be both. Look at the diagrams:

Answer choice (D)'s assumption: longer than 5 miles long trip

What you claimed Judy's response may be denying: long trip longer than 5 miles

There's a big difference between saying "all trips are either within 5 miles or long" and "no trips are both within 5 miles and long trips."

I wanted to clarify that, but it's not important for why answer choice (D) is wrong here - John is not making the assumption that answer attributes to him, nor does Judy think he does.

Robert Carroll

[Snomen]

I see..,thank you!