Critical Reasoning

Evan: I am a vegetarian because I believe it is immoral
to inflict pain on animals to obtain food. Some
vegetarians who share this moral reason nonetheless
consume some seafood, on the grounds that it is
not known whether certain sea creatures can
experience pleasure or pain. But if it is truly
wrong to inflict needless suffering, we should
extend the benefit of the doubt to sea animals and
refrain from eating seafood.
Which one of the following most closely conforms to
the principle illustrated by Evan's criticism of vegetarians
who eat seafood?
(A) I do not know if I have repaid Farah the money
she lent me for a movie ticket. She says that
she does not remember whether or not I repaid
her. In order to be sure that I have repaid her,
I will give her the money now.
(B) It is uncertain whether all owners of the defective
vehicles know that their vehicles are being
recalled by the manufacturer. Thus, we should
expect that some vehicles that have been
recalled have not been returned.
(C) I am opposed to using incentives such as
reduced taxes to attract businesses to our region.
These incentives would attract businesses
interested only in short-term profits. Such
businesses would make our region's economy
less stable, because they have no long-term
commitment to the community.
(D) Updating our computer security system could
lead to new contracts. The present system has
no problems, but we could benefit from
emphasizing a state-of-the-art system in new
proposals. If we do not get new customers,
the new system could be financed through
higher fees for current customers.
(E) Isabel Allende lived through the tragic events of
her country's recent history; no doubt her
novels have been inspired by her memories of
those events. Yet Allende's characters are
hopeful and full of joy, indicating that Allende's
own view of life has not been negatively
marked by her experiences.

Could someone help me how to approach such type of questions? I got C. But official is A

Bakhtior wrote:Evan: I am a vegetarian because I believe it is immoral
to inflict pain on animals to obtain food. Some
vegetarians who share this moral reason nonetheless
consume some seafood, on the grounds that it is
not known whether certain sea creatures can
experience pleasure or pain. But if it is truly
wrong to inflict needless suffering, we should
extend the benefit of the doubt to sea animals and
refrain from eating seafood.
Which one of the following most closely conforms to
the principle illustrated by Evan's criticism of vegetarians
who eat seafood?
(A) I do not know if I have repaid Farah the money
she lent me for a movie ticket. She says that
she does not remember whether or not I repaid
her. In order to be sure that I have repaid her,
I will give her the money now.
(B) It is uncertain whether all owners of the defective
vehicles know that their vehicles are being
recalled by the manufacturer. Thus, we should
expect that some vehicles that have been
recalled have not been returned.
(C) I am opposed to using incentives such as
reduced taxes to attract businesses to our region.
These incentives would attract businesses
interested only in short-term profits. Such
businesses would make our region's economy
less stable, because they have no long-term
commitment to the community.
(D) Updating our computer security system could
lead to new contracts. The present system has
no problems, but we could benefit from
emphasizing a state-of-the-art system in new
proposals. If we do not get new customers,
the new system could be financed through
higher fees for current customers.
(E) Isabel Allende lived through the tragic events of
her country's recent history; no doubt her
novels have been inspired by her memories of
those events. Yet Allende's characters are
hopeful and full of joy, indicating that Allende's
own view of life has not been negatively
marked by her experiences.

Every argument has a structure, a way it gets from evidence or premises to its conclusion. In parallel reasoning questions, one finds the right answer by finding an argument that has a structure similar to that of the argument in the prompt.

In this case the argument in the prompt is structured in the following way.

-Some people do x saying that it is not clear that y is the case.

-I conclude that given that y could be true, people should take the safe route of doing what they would do if y were true.

In order to find the right answer, you need to find in the answer choices the argument the structure of which most closely matches the structure of the prompt.

A) This states that given that the person is not sure that he has repaid Farah, he should take the in a way safer route of repaying her just in case it is true that he has not.

While the structure of choice A is not exactly the same as that of the argument in the prompt, the structure of choice A is similar to that of the argument in the prompt in that the conclusion is that one should choose a course of action because that course of action would make sense if something that might be true were true.

None of the other choices have structures that somehow resemble concluding that one should choose a course of action because it's possible that something might be true. So A is by far the best answer choice.