Ms Kopke

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Ms Kopke

by ssgmatter » Sun Mar 28, 2010 5:50 am
Kopke: In the past ten years, most of the new clothes that I have purchased have fallen apart within a few short years. However, all of the clothes that I have purchased at vintage clothing shops are still in excellent condition, despite the fact that they were all over thirty years old at the time that I bought them. Clearly, clothes are not manufactured as well today as they were when those vintage clothes were made.
Which of the following is a weakness in the argument above?
A. It fails to demonstrate that the clothes manufactured thirty years ago were of higher quality than clothes of all other era.
B. It neglects the possibility that the clothes of thirty years ago, when prices are adjusted for inflation, cost more than clothes manufactured today.
C. It confuses the number of clothing items sold with the proportion of those items that are no longer useful.
D. It does not explain why clothing manufacturing standards have fallen over item.
E. It fails to take into account clothes made over thirty years ago that are no longer fit for sale.

Any explanation for this one??....too much it is

Regards,
Phil
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by neoreaves » Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:37 am
What we need to attack here is the conclusion:

"Clearly, clothes are not manufactured as well today as they were when those vintage clothes were made. "

Keeping this in focus. The only choice that does this effectively is :

E) It fails to take into account clothes made over thirty years ago that are no longer fit for sale.


The older clothes that fell apart will not be part of the sale. Thus we might just be looking at the best of the best out of the older clothes while we are comparing only the newer clothes with this small part of the older clothes and giving a generalized Conclusion.

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by grockit_andrea » Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:13 am
I agree. Whenever you have a CR question that draws a broad conclusion based on a limited sample size, there is a possibility that the flaw/assumption/weakness is going to address the idea that the evidence is too limited, the sample isn't representative of the population as a whole, etc.
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