Skip to main content

Critical Reasoning Warmup Exercise

Read the question stem for each question and then answer the questions about them.

  http://www.testmagic.com/Knowledge_Base/critical_reasoning/warm_ups_01_answers.htm

#

Simplified Question Stems

1.

The best movie showing in the US right now is Mission Ridiculous, Part XXIV--it has been in the #1 position for three weeks.

  • How can we weaken this argument?

We could show that a popular movie is not necessarily a good movie. In other words, just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.

  • How can we strengthen this argument?

We could show that a popular movie is always a good movie. In other words, there is a direct relationship between popularity and quality (probably not true in this case).

 

2.

All mammals have hair. Therefore, elephants have hair.

  • If so, what is the "missing step," or "hidden assumption."

An elephant is a mammal.

 

3.

Lucy Magic has recently suggested that all people should go to school for at least 14 years. However, this argument is clearly wrong since Lucy Magic only went to school for four years.

  • How could we weaken this argument?

Lucy Magic's personal background is not related to her suggestion.

  • How could we strengthen this argument?

Lucy Magic's personal background is related to her suggestion.

 

4.

To raise your test scores, you should study and practice the test a lot. However, Mike Magic used this strategy and he did not get the score that he wanted. Therefore, this strategy is not helpful.

  • How could we weaken this argument?

Mike Magic's results will not be the same as the results of other people.

  • How could we strengthen this argument?

Mike Magic's results will be the same as the results of other people.

 

5.

It is a commonly known fact that most people do not pay for street parking for all the time that they are parked--how many times have you walked down the street and seen cars parked with expired meters? We can therefore conclude that the system of using parking meters is useless.

  • How could we weaken this argument?

Essentially less than 100% does not equal 0%; in other words, just because a parking meter is not 100% effective, it doesn't mean that it is 0% effective.

  • How could we strengthen this argument?

We would have to show that somehow we need to have 100% efficiency in order for something to be useful.

 

6.

Frozen water is less dense than liquid water. Therefore, frozen water will float in liquid water.

  • What is the "missing step," or "hidden assumption."

If we have two things and we put them together, the thing that is less dense will float in the thing that is more dense.

 

7.

President Magic has recently suggested adding fluoride to all public water sources. This is obviously a bad idea since many of the former communist countries also added fluoride to all their public water sources.

  • How could we weaken this argument?

Again, the background of the former communist countries has no relationship with how well the plan will work.

  • How could we strengthen this argument?

Again, the background of the former communist countries does have a relationship with how well the plan will work.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quality education still elusive (The Hindu Edit)

The key finding in a recent study that even top schools in major cities in India suffer from the entrenched tendency to impart rote learning may have some shock value to those who believe that private educational institutions place greater emphasis on quality and holistic education. However, for those closely observing the school education scenario, it is a re-affirmation of a bitter truth: schools in our country are, by and large, quite far from seeing education as a process of learning with understanding, acquiring knowledge through self-discovery and conceptualisation; rather, education remains a mere transmission of information in a rigid classroom atmosphere, where the emphasis is on memorisation and the objective is to rush through a pre-determined syllabus and prepare children for examinations. While on the scholastic side the WIPRO-Educational Initiatives 'Quality Education Study,' which covered 89 schools, shows a fall in learning standards among students in classes 4,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rooting For Home Essay by Mark Tully

In humans, as in plants, roots grow deeper if left to grow in one place, untransplanted MARK TULLY Magazine| Jan 12, 2009 T homas Hardy, who wrote some of the best known English novels, one of which was called The Return of the Native , said, "I am convinced that it is better for a writer to know a little bit of the world remarkably well than to know a great part of the world remarkably little." The bit of the world Hardy knew remarkably well was his native place, the county of Dorset in the west of England. It was a very small bit of the world, and a remote rural bit at that, which did not keep up with the fast-moving times of the last quarter of the 19th century. Hardy's novels reveal the profound influence of his native place but he was not a country bumpkin. One biographer of Hardy has said, "The two contrasting modes of feeling—for his native soil and for his cultural mecca (London)—entwine, sometimes fusing, sometimes pulling asunder, always with varying ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How much you will charge to laugh?

Sonal Kalra, HT City, DDun My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those who are always `dead' serious I give you three seconds to recall the last time you laughed out loud. One...two...three, done. All those who remembered the last `LOL' they'd casually typed while chatting on Facebook can take turns to slap each other. And the others, who at least tried to recall their real laughter but could not, listen to me. Kya, problem kya hai? Do people, who have to bear you every day of their lives, not deserve to sometimes see the twinkle in your eyes or the teeth that you claim to religiously brush every morning? Kya aapke toothpaste mein namak hai? Then what is the matter, people? Yesterday I observed this man at a friend's get-together. He was there to attend a party, but his face bore an expression as if the host had put a gun to his head and dragged him there. Someone told a joke, everyone laughed, even those who had heard it before. But this one's e...
Post a Comment
Read more