CR Question

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CR Question

by its_me07 » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:34 pm
Advertisement: Clark brand-name parts are made for cars manufactured in this country. They satisfy all of our government automotive test�the toughest such tests in the world. With foreign-made parts, you never know which might be reliable and which are cheap look-alikes that are poorly constructed and liable to cost you hundreds of dollars in repairs. Therefore, be smart and insist on brand-name parts by Clark for your car.
The argument requires the assumption that
(A) Clark parts are available only in this country
(B) foreign-made parts are not suitable for cars manufactured in this country
(C) no foreign-made parts satisfy our government standards
(D) parts that satisfy our government standards are not as poorly constructed as cheap foreign-made parts
(E) if parts are made for cars manufactured in our country, they are not poorly constructed



I chose E but the OA is D...why?
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by lunarpower » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:23 am
read choice e carefully: it says 'if parts are made for cars manufactured in our country, ...' that is a very sweeping generalization; it covers all parts ever made for our cars, no matter where or how they're made. taken literally,** this statement would even extend to parts made by six-year-olds from the ruins of cardboard boxes.

the argument, by contrast, is strictly limited to parts made by Clark.

see below for one possible explanation of why you may have chosen choice e.

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the only evidence the argument gives for the superiority of Clark parts is their having passed government tests. based on that evidence alone, the argument recommends choosing the Clark parts over 'cheap look-alikes that are poorly constructed...'.

that recommendation REQUIRES the assumption that, if parts pass the government tests, they must be better than the cheap lookalikes.

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ONE REASON YOU MAY HAVE CHOSEN E:
you may have misread or misinterpreted the prompt question.

if the prompt question were:
'which of the following, if true, would support the argument?'
then choice e would be correct. however, choice e is not a REQUIRED ASSUMPTION (which is what this problem asks for), and is indeed unrealistic for the reasons mentioned above.

read the problem carefully!
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by nicolette » Fri May 13, 2016 1:00 am
I think E is the right answer here