#17 - It is pointless to debate the truth of the law of

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main point questions can be deceptive. They often are coupled with complex stimuli that have multiple conclusions, and the main conclusion is frequently found at the beginning or in the middle of the argument instead of at the end, where we would prefer to find it. Making it more challenging, the test authors love to place an intermediate conclusion at the very end of the argument to trick unwary test takers. Be careful! The main conclusion needs to be the statement that gets all the support in the argument and gives none.

Answer A: This is the correct answer. The entire argument is designed to support the claim that debating the law of noncontradiction is pointless

Answer B: This is neither a conclusion nor a premise of the argument, just a definition that helps us better understand what we are talking about.

Answer C: This is a premise of the argument, not supported by any other claims in the stimulus.

Answer D: This answer misstates elements of the argument, combining them in a way that the author did not do. The argument indicates that the law of noncontradiction is self-evident, so it doesn't matter what principles are held in common because everyone must agree with this law.

Answer E: This is another premise of the argument, supporting the claim that debate over the law is pointless and getting no support from any other claim.

Interestingly, the authors did not ask about the last statement in the argument, which was an intermediate conclusion. That would have been a very attractive wrong answer, had they included it, and it was very friendly of them not to do so!

[lathlee]

As I stated in Q 11 of this section 4, Powerscore says the incorrect answer types of MPs are repeating the portion of question stimulus. Even more then Q.11, this Q's correct answer choice A) it is pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction... It is EXACT SAME WORD TO WORD REPETITION.

the question stem opens with this sentence: "it is pointless to debate the truth of the law of noncontradiction, a fundamental logical principle..."

I thought this was the right answer but went with D) cuz it captures the whole of the arguments' arguments which Powerscore asked the readers to do.

[Adam Tyson]

Powerscore says the incorrect answer types of MPs are repeating the portion of question stimulus.

I'm not sure what you are referring to here, lathlee. Where do we say this, and in what context?

Typically, most of the answer choices to Main Point questions in Logical Reasoning will repeat something that was in the stimulus. It would be very easy to reject an answer that the author did not say, because his Main Point will be something that he DID say, or that we can paraphrase based upon what he said. For example, in the argument "Some people say that Hammond will win the contest. Nonsense! He doesn't stand a chance now that Yuri has entered!", the author's Main Point is that Hammond will not win. He didn't say that Hammond will not win, but he did say that the claim that he will win is nonsense.

For that argument, we would not pick an answer that said "Hammond would probably have won if Yuri had not entered" because the author never said any such thing and we cannot paraphrase any portion of his argument to come up with that entirely new claim. That makes eliminating this answer very easy, and the authors don't like to make things too easy for us.

Answer D is not in the stimulus and does not paraphrase anything that was said in the stimulus, and so it cannot be the Main Point of the argument. It must be rejected because it brings up a new idea.

The Main Point correct answer must be something the author said, and it can even be an exact quote as in this case. That isn't a reason to reject an answer, lathlee, but to embrace it and select it, so long as it matches your prephrase. Be sure you are prephrasing these questions by asking yourself "of all the claims in this argument, which is the one claim that the author is trying to prove, which is supported by the other claims?"