Critical Reasoning

On average, the number of speeding tickets issued in County X every year is three times greater than the numberof speeding tickets issued in County Y during the same period. Therefore, the number of people who exceed thespeed limit must be higher in County X than in County Y.

Which of the following describes a flaw in the reasoning above?

"¢The argument fails to take into account that the speed limit may be different in the two counties.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that the number of tickets issued in County X may reflect a lower proportionof drivers overall in that county.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that a single driver can receive more than one ticket in a given year.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that residents of County Y may be more law-abiding overall.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that residents of County X may not be aware of the speed limit in thatcounty.

OA:[spoiler]'every year'[/spoiler]

Hi,
Premise : number of speeding tickets issued in County X every year is three times greater than the numberof speeding tickets issued in County Y
Conclusion : the number of people who exceed thespeed limit must be higher in County X than in County Y

A - The argument fails to take into account that the speed limit may be different in the two counties.
Irrelevant. It doesn't matter what the respective speed limits are. We are concerned only about the number of people exceeding speed limit in their respective country.

B - The argument fails to take into account that the number of tickets issued in County X may reflect a lower proportionof drivers overall in that county
Irrelevant. We need to compare absolute number of X with absolute number of Y. So, proportion of them in country X is irrelevant.

C - Let's say there are 400 tickets issued in Country X and 100 in country Y.
There are 80 people who exceeded the speed limits five times each in country X and all the 100 tickets in country Y are issued 100 different people(one each).
So, number of people who exceeded in X < Number of people who exceeded in Y is possible.

HSPA wrote:On average, the number of speeding tickets issued in County X every year is three times greater than the numberof speeding tickets issued in County Y during the same period. Therefore, the number of people who exceed thespeed limit must be higher in County X than in County Y.

Which of the following describes a flaw in the reasoning above?

"¢The argument fails to take into account that the speed limit may be different in the two counties.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that the number of tickets issued in County X may reflect a lower proportionof drivers overall in that county.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that a single driver can receive more than one ticket in a given year.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that residents of County Y may be more law-abiding overall.

"¢The argument fails to take into account that residents of County X may not be aware of the speed limit in thatcounty.

OA:[spoiler]'every year'[/spoiler]

Hi HSPA,

I first felt difficult when I read the argument.
If you observe
"On average, the number of speeding tickets issued in County X every year is three times greater than the numberof speeding tickets issued in County Y during the same period. Therefore, the number of people who exceed thespeed limit must be higher in County X than in County Y"

There is a drastic shift of the scope from the number of speeding tickets to the number of people.
So "C" option will unwind everything and the Frankensteins reasoning is perfect..


Abhishek
My best mate,GMATe
www.pixionary.blocked