bleacherseat wrote:The city council will certainly vote to approve the new downtown redevelopment plan, despite the objections of environmentalists. After all, most of the campaign contributions received by members of the city council come from real estate development firms, which stand to benefit from the plan.
Which of the following statements, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) Several members of the city council receive sizable campaign contributions from environmental lobbying groups.
(B) Members of the city council are required to report the size and source of each campaign contribution they receive.
(C) Not every real estate development firm in the city will be able to participate in, and profit from, the new downtown redevelopment plan.
(D) The members of the city council have often voted in ways that are opposed to the interests of their campaign contributors.
(E) Some environmentalists have stated that the new downtown redevelopment plan might be environmentally sound if certain minor modifications are made.
Learn to recognize the common flaws.
This argument exhibits a
language shift.
The premise is about
campaign contributions.
The conclusion is about
voting for the redevelopment plan.
This is a
language shift: the premise is about
campaign contributions, the conclusion is about
voting.
The argument assumes that these two ideas are connected: that
campaign contributions determine how the committee
votes.
The correct answer choice will break the link between these two ideas: it will show that
campaign contributions DO NOT determine how the committee
votes.
Answer choice D does just what we need:
The members of the city council have often voted in ways that are opposed to the interests of their campaign contributors.
The correct answer is
D.
For those who chose answer choice A:
Beware the word
several. How many is several? The argument states that
most of the contributions come from real estate development firms. If a few members receive money from environmental lobbying groups, the argument is not affected:
most of the contributions would still be coming from the real estate firms.
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