In the first paragraph, the author refers to a highly reputed critic's persistence in believing van Meegeren's forger...

Mehran on July 25, 2018

@marissa (A) is flawed. We know that "as one gets older one gets wiser." This applies to the SAME person.

We cannot use this principle to make a comparative statement about wiseness between two DIFFERENT people.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Audrey on May 28, 2019

Then why is it OK to compare 2 different TREES (possibly in different yards, different climates, etc.) from a stated general principle (same as A, just people instead of trees). We are not supposed to question the principle they give us - we are not God - right?

Ravi on May 30, 2019

@Audrey,

Let's take a look at (A) and (D).

(A) says, "As one gets older one gets wiser. Since Henrietta is older
than her daughter, Henrietta must be wiser than her daughter."

(A) is a tricky answer choice, and it looks pretty similar to (D).
However, the key difference is that the stimulus compares two things
(altitude and air thinness) that are actually in absolute terms of
one's positionality on Earth. Regardless of where you're at on Earth,
the higher one goes in elevation, the thinner the air gets. In looking
at Henrietta and her daughter in (A), we now that the older one gets,
the wiser one gets. However, we're comparing two different people.
There isn't an absolute marker like we have when looking at the
elevation on Earth. From this, although we certainly can conclude that
the older Henrietta is, in fact, wiser than her younger self, we
cannot make any sort of conclusions regarding the comparison of
Henrietta's wisdom to her daughter's wisdom. It's possible that
Henrietta's daughter was born far wiser than her mother, and she'll
only continue to get wiser with age. This is why (A) is out.

(D) says, "The older a tree, the more rings it has. The tree in Lou's
yard is older than the tree in Theresa's yard. Therefore, the tree in
Lou's yard must have more rings than does the tree in Theresa's yard."

Unlike (A), (D) compares two different things (trees and rings) that
can be compared on an objective scale that's absolute. The older a
tree is, the more rings it has. This matches the stimulus: the higher
one is on Earth, the thinner the air is. This is why (D) is correct
and (A) is wrong.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions!

on October 20, 2020

Hi. On example one when we diagram the argument, either or aren't we suppose to pick one and make it the necessary condition then negate the sufficient? I was a bit confused about that. Or do we just not do that when it's a combination sufficient and necessary argument. I think that may be the reason, but just needed clarification. Thanks

Megan on July 25, 2021

My question is: the question asked of us is which answer choice follows the same argument structure/reasoning. A) is following the exact same reasoning as the original passage. Even if the argument is false, why is it not the correct answer because it DOES follow exactly with the argumentative reasoning.