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by bryan88 » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:08 am
Joshua: It is cause for alarm that over half of the people in this state reported in a survey that they knew someone who had been a victim of a crime.

Laura: But each person surveyed probably knows a hundred people. If only one person out of one hundred acquaintances had been a victim of a crime, even a petty theft, they would reply in the affirmative. Although a zero crime rate is ideal, it is unrealistic to expect the crime rate to be less than one percent.

Laura's argument relies on the assumption that

A)the crime rate rarely goes above one percent.
B)Joshua is accurately reporting the statistics he presents.
C)the number of people who know someone who is a victim of crime is always higher than fifty percent of the population.
D)awareness of a crime committed against an acquaintance generates more fear than does knowledge of crime statistics.
E)normally, crime victims are not found only in certain areas of the state among certain isolated groups of people.
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by killer1387 » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:30 am
Laura: But each person surveyed probably knows a hundred people. If only one person out of one hundred acquaintances had been a victim of a crime, even a petty theft, they would reply in the affirmative. Although a zero crime rate is ideal, it is unrealistic to expect the crime rate to be less than one percent.

E)normally, crime victims are not found only in certain areas of the state among certain isolated groups of people.

Its E then only Laura's argument stands.
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:30 am
bryan88 wrote:Joshua: It is cause for alarm that over half of the people in this state reported in a survey that they knew someone who had been a victim of a crime.

Laura: But each person surveyed probably knows a hundred people. If only one person out of one hundred acquaintances had been a victim of a crime, even a petty theft, they would reply in the affirmative. Although a zero crime rate is ideal, it is unrealistic to expect the crime rate to be less than one percent.

Laura's argument relies on the assumption that

A)the crime rate rarely goes above one percent.
B)Joshua is accurately reporting the statistics he presents.
C)the number of people who know someone who is a victim of crime is always higher than fifty percent of the population.
D)awareness of a crime committed against an acquaintance generates more fear than does knowledge of crime statistics.
E)normally, crime victims are not found only in certain areas of the state among certain isolated groups of people.
Negate E option --> Laura's argument cannot be true.
Hence E is the right answer.

To negate just prefix "It is not true that..."
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:50 am
bryan88 wrote:Joshua: It is cause for alarm that over half of the people in this state reported in a survey that they knew someone who had been a victim of a crime.

Laura: But each person surveyed probably knows a hundred people. If only one person out of one hundred acquaintances had been a victim of a crime, even a petty theft, they would reply in the affirmative. Although a zero crime rate is ideal, it is unrealistic to expect the crime rate to be less than one percent.

Laura's argument relies on the assumption that

A)the crime rate rarely goes above one percent.
B)Joshua is accurately reporting the statistics he presents.
C)the number of people who know someone who is a victim of crime is always higher than fifty percent of the population.
D)awareness of a crime committed against an acquaintance generates more fear than does knowledge of crime statistics.
E)normally, crime victims are not found only in certain areas of the state among certain isolated groups of people.
A--The actual crime rate is irrelevant to her argument; she's only arguing against Joshua's position
B--This would not affect the validity of her argument
C--The "higher than 50%" statement was part of Joshua's argument, so it has no bearing on Laura's response
D--Fear was not part of the argument
E--Bingo. Laura's argument only works if crime victims have many acquaintances. If this is not true, her argument falls apart.
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