No student at Pinewoods High takes both biology and chemistry at the same time. Ramona and Quinn are both students at Pinewoods and neither takes biology, so they must both be enrolled in chemistry.
Which one of the following arguments displays a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to that in the argument above?
A)No employee at Sunstar Bank is both an accountant and a manager. Because Chris is both a teller and a manager at his job, he must not work at Sunstar.
B)No one can travel to both New York and San Diego in the same day. Because James is on a flight to New York, he clearly will not be able to go to San Diego as well.
C)The job posting requires a candidate who can sing and dance. Beatrice can sing very well but cannot dance, so she is unqualified for the job.
D)No one can complete a bachelor's degree while completing a Ph.D. Raymond is not in graduate school, so he must still be working on his bachelor's.
E)Both law school and public policy school take multiple years to complete. Elisa only took one year to finish school, so she must not have gone to either.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The answer that displays a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to the original passage is answer D. In the original passage, it is mistakenly assumed that if two things cannot be done together, if one is not being done, then the other must. In answer D, it is assumed that since Raymond can't get his Ph.D. and bachelor's together, if he's not completing a Ph.D. then he must be doing the other, ignoring the possibility that he is finishing neither.

No Student at Pinewoods High Takes Both Biology and Chemistry