Which one of the following statements most accurately characterizes a difference between the two passages?
Erika-Gillyon June 2, 2023
Illustration Questions VS Parallel Reasoning Questions
I am confused on how to distinguish between these two. Aren't they asking for the same thing? If the passage conforms to the correct answer, isn't it paralleling it? The only thing I can think of is that the answers are about the same argument for illustration and perhaps they're not in parallel reasoning? As in, they are just mimicking the reasoning but it's a completely different argument in the answers for parallel reasoning? (Please let me know if I am right or completely off base, I wouldn't want to assume).
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Hi, they are quite similar conceptually, but the differences will be clear based on the way the question is asked. For parallel reasoning, we are looking for the exact same structure. This is an exercise in understanding the hard structure of the argument and finding an answer choice with the same structure.
For illustration questions we are looking for the overall scenario that is occurring. We care less about the formal structure, and more about the general rule or situation that we are seeing. These tend to be a bit squishier than parallel reasoning questions.
On the whole I'd describe them as cousins. Both are looking for an answer choice that holds a key similarity to the passage, but for parallel questions we want the same structure, and for illustrations we want the same general scenario.
