Deck 10: Evaluating Arguments

Question 1

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter or letters to indicate the presence or absence of an error or errors in reasoning. Around the world, 125 million children aged six to eleven years old do not attend school.Two-thirds of those children are girls.Getting all these children into school is one of the best things the United States can do to help other nations become politically and economically stable.For one thing, schooling raises earning power by 10 to 20 percent.Therefore, education helps developing nations improve their economies.Secondly, girls who have been educated tend to have smaller and healthier families.Finally, children need to be in school.It is shameful for our country, which insists on mandatory education for all of its own children, to fail to commit resources to helping impoverished nations create schools for their young people.America should help children everywhere get educated.

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified or dated research
E) unidentified experts
F) irrelevant reason
G) no error

Answer 1

C,F

Question 2

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. Some psychologists, education experts, and schools are rightly calling for colleges to stop using the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to evaluate applicants for admission.This test was designed to measure and predict an individual's potential for success in college.Many argue, though, that the test fails at this task.It does not assess knowledge of specific concepts or skills.Therefore, it does not allow a student to demonstrate his or her ability to master course work.Furthermore, many experts argue that colleges who consider SAT scores tend to overlook other indicators of an individual's strengths and potential.Admissions officers claim they need the SAT as a common yardstick for evaluating applicants from a wide variety of schools.They also say it's more expensive and time-consuming to assess applicants without the SAT.However, many are now saying that a fairer and more accurate evaluation of an individual relies less on a test score and more on a thorough review of that applicant's academic performance and extracurricular activities.A growing body of research suggests that grades in school, not grades on the SAT, are the best predictor of academic success.

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified experts or dated research
E) irrelevant reason
F) no error

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. States should not legitimize homosexual relationships by legalizing same-sex marriages.For thousands of years, marriage has been defined as a legal and religious union between one man and one woman.Besides, many homosexuals themselves oppose modeling their romantic relationships after heterosexual unions.They object to selling out to the majority's established value system.Allowing same-sex marriages will also threaten the institution of marriage itself and make a mockery of heterosexual unions.If same-sex marriages are permitted, they are bound to disastrously undermine the very meaning of marriage.Once we allow homosexuals to marry, then how can we say no to group marriage or to men who want three wives or women who want two husbands?

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified experts or dated research
E) irrelevant reason
F) no error

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter or letters to indicate the presence or absence of an error or errors in reasoning. Because pornography is harmful, our legislature should pass more laws to regulate and censor it.Pornography undermines standards of morality.It degrades sex into little more than an act that satisfies an animal instinct.It encourages people to view sex as a commodity to be bought and sold, rather than as an expression of love between two committed people.Children who accidentally stumble upon pornographic materials are in danger of forming skewed attitudes about the nature and purpose of sex.Pornography is even more harmful to women.As all the reliable research shows, it reinforces negative stereotypes of women as inferior, and it encourages men to view women as little more than sex objects.Such stereo-types perpetuate discrimination against women in all areas of society.Pornography also promotes violence.Much of it portrays rape scenes, torture, and other violent acts, legitimizing them as a means of achieving sexual pleasure.Those who view pornographic materials are more likely to want to reenact those scenes, which can lead them to commit violent crimes against women.

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified or dated research
E) unidentified experts
F) irrelevant reason
G) no error

Question 5

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter or letters to indicate the presence or absence of an error or errors in reasoning. Women's gymnastics is a sport dominated by very young girls.As a matter of fact, 18- and 19-year-old gymnasts are usually considered "old" and nearing the end of their competitive years.Critics of the sport correctly point out that its emphasis on pre-teen athletes is harmful to the girls who participate.To begin with, gymnastics can be physically damaging to young athletes' bodies.For example, intense regular physical activity during the child-hood years can lead to weakening of the bones.A 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article warned that female gymnasts are prone to an "accumulation of minor physical insults that can result in permanent injury or deformity.These injuries include stress fractures; growth-plate fractures; wrist and elbow injuries; [and] spinal injuries such as scoliosis." Girls in gymnastics are also prone to dangerous eating disorders because the sport demands a thin physique.In 1992, the average gymnast was just 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 83 pounds.Then, too, competitive gymnastics can be emotionally and mentally damaging.The sport pushes very young girls beyond their maturity level and many cannot effectively cope with the extreme pressures of high-stress training and competitions.The stress these little girls endure as they try to live up to expectations of their coaches, their parents, and themselves can be overwhelming.The New England Journal of Medicine said that "at its worst, the sport can result in serious, life-endangering ...emotional disabilities."

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified or dated research
E) unidentified experts
F) irrelevant reason
G) no error

Question 6

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. Some print media, such as the Chicago Times, are acting responsibly by refusing to report school shooting incidents on their front page.Television journalists should follow this example by refusing to broadcast intensive coverage of a child's violent rampage.These reports do more harm than good.To attract viewers and increase their ratings, television news organizations emphasize the lurid details of a shooting incident and report it over and over again, especially when it involves children.This kind of television coverage desensitizes viewers to violence, and in the case of children, may well inspire them to commit copycat crimes in their own schools.After all, this is what happened when an Arkansas teenager acknowledged that he brought a gun to school after seeing footage of the Columbine tragedy on television.How much more proof do networks need and how much damage will they cause before they stop focusing so heavily on adolescent violence?

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified experts or dated research
E) irrelevant reason
F) no error

Question 7

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. The international trade in exotic animals is growing, and an individual can now buy anything from a baboon to a three-toed sloth to a scorpion.However, people should not adopt wild, unusual beasts to keep as pets.These animals are much too dangerous and unpredictable.Recently, police entered the apartment of a 42-year-old Delaware man and found seven Nile monitor lizards eating their owner's corpse.This incident proves that keeping wild animals as pets leads to disaster.Also, the purchase of exotic animals supports a trade that damages both the animals and their native habitats.Many exotic animals, such as tropical birds, are captured from the wild and forced into an unnatural life of captivity-that is, if they survive the trip to their destination.During capture and shipment, the mortality rate of these animals is very high.For example, as many as 60 or 70 percent of birds and reptiles die during transport.Also, the removal of these creatures from their native habitats can harm ecosystems.When animals that play important ecological * roles begin to disappear, other species are often destroyed, too.For all of these reasons, it's best to adopt only traditional, domesticated animals to keep as pets.
(Source: Mark Deer, "Lure of the Exotic Stirs Trouble in the Animal Kingdom," 
The New York Times, February 12, 2002, www.nytimes.com.)
_______________________________
*ecological: related to the balance of nature

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified experts or dated research
E) irrelevant reason
F) no error

Question 8

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter to indicate the presence or absence of an error in reasoning. When their children are born with birth defects, more and more workers are suing their employers.Employees who sue claim that job hazards such as toxic chemicals damaged their eggs, sperm, or fetuses.These lawsuits are nothing but modern-day witch hunts.Employers always fully inform workers about the possible risks of working near hazardous materials.Many even require employees to complete training programs before they can work with chemicals.Plus, employers cannot prevent workers-even pregnant women-from working a certain job.If they do, they can be accused of discrimination.So people who choose to work with dangerous substances should not blame their employers if their children have birth defects.Besides, workplace chemicals' effects on human beings have not yet been thoroughly studied.Therefore, there is still no undisputed scientific proof that they can cause defects.Likewise, there is still no way to prove a definite link between parents' workplace environments and their child's birth defects.The children's problems could have been caused by factors not related to the workplace.Moreover, research in birth defects is not properly funded.With our technology, we should be able to figure out why 3 percent of babies are still being born with major diseases and disabilities.
(Source of information: Stephanie Armour, "Workers Take Employers to Court Over Birth Defects," USA Today, February 26, 2002, p.1A.)

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified experts or dated research
E) irrelevant reason
F) no error

Question 9

Read each passage.Then choose the appropriate letter or letters to indicate the presence or absence of an error or errors in reasoning. Practices for college and professional football players should not be scheduled for hot summer afternoons.Coaches who push their teams to hit the field for workouts during 98-degree days are asking for trouble.The death in 2001 of Korey Stringer, a 27-year-old tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, provided tragic proof that summer workouts are too dangerous.Football teams everywhere should learn from his example and never give training precedence over players' safety.Having the best football team in the world is just not worth the risk.

A) circular reasoning
B) hasty generalization
C) slippery slope
D) unidentified or dated research
E) unidentified experts
F) irrelevant reason
G) no error