FUNDAMENTALS of

Critical Reasoning!
But, what is…

CR?
The real definition!
And how imp is it?
And, how is
CR tested?

…through argument-based cr question.

Like strengthen, weaken…etc
Or through para-based cr questions
Like paragraph completion, para-summary(2014
about 7 questions)…etc.
Today’s class is about
FUNDAS
of
argument-based CR questions:
 Common CR Tasks/Questions
1. Identify the Conclusion very very imp

2. Identify the Assumption very very imp

3. Identify the Inference very very imp 4 questions in 2014 CAT

4. Weaken the argument very very imp

5. Strengthen the argument very very imp

6. Identify the Flaw

7. Resolve the paradox/contradition

8. Identify the Parallel reasoning

How to deal with these?

First, let’s see the question

model?
 The MODEL/Parts of a Critical Reasoning Question

1. Most serious students are happy students, and _________ Stimulus

most serious students go to graduate school. /argument
Furthermore, all students who go to graduate
school are overworked
Which one of the following can be properly inferred_________ Question Stem
from the statements above?

(A) Most overworked students are happy

students.
A)Some happy students are overworked _________ Answer Choices
B)All overworked students are serious students.
C)Some unhappy students go to graduate school.
D)All serious students are overworked.
 Most important of all:
Analyzing/understanding the stimulus/argument

WE have already studied and understood what an

argument is, remember?

So, what is an argument?

 Imp note: Arguments versus fact sets
GMAT stimuli fall into two distinct categories : those containing an argument and
those that are just a set of facts. Logically speaking, an argument can be defined
as a set of statements wherein one statement is claimed to follow from or be
derived from the others. Consider the following short example of an argument:

All professors are ethical. Mason is a professor. So Mason is ethical.

The first two statements in this argument give the reason (or “premises”) for
accepting the third statement, which is the conclusion of the argument.

Fact sets, on the other hand, are a collection of statements without a conclusion,
as in the following example:

“The Hyderabad area has just over one million residents. The Mumbai
area has almost two million residents. The New Delhi area has almost twenty
million residents.”
 Most important of all:
Analyzing/understanding the stimulus/argument

ONCE WE KNOW THAT IT’S AN ARGUMENT…

FIRST OF ALL:WE MUST IDENTIFY THE CONCLUSION and
THE PREMISES.

WE REFERRED TO PREMISES AS BASES/BASIS EARLIER!

 Identifying Premises and Conclusions
For CAT purposes, a premise can be defined as:

“A fact, proposition, or statement from which a conclusion is made.”

SIMPLY SPEAKING: A REASON THAT IS MENTIONED IN THE ARGUMENT!

A conclusion can be defined as:

“A statement or judgment that follows from one or more

reasons/PREMISES/basis.”
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The order of presentation has no effect on the logical
structures of the argument. The conclusion can appear at
the beginning, the middle, or the end of the argument.

Let’s take the cricketer X example!

With the practice we have had so far…
CAN U IDENTIFY THE CONCLUSION AND
PREMISES WITH SURETY?

LET’S TAKE TWO PAST EXAMPLES…

JUST TO REFRESH UR MEMORY!
 It is widely believed that eating chocolate can cause acne. Indeed, many people
who are susceptible to acne report that, in their own experience, eating large
amounts of chocolate is invariably followed by an outbreak of that skin condition.
However, it is likely that common wisdom has mistaken an effect for a cause.
Several recent scientific studies indicate that hormonal changes associated with
stress can cause acne and there is good evidence that people who are fond of
chocolate tend to eat more chocolate when they are under stress,
Of the following, which one most accurately expresses the main point of the
argument?
(A) People are mistaken who insist that whenever they eat large amounts of
chocolate they invariably suffer from an outbreak of acne,
(B) The more chocolate a person eats, the more likely that person is to experience
the hormonal changes associated with stress.
(C) Eating large amounts of chocolate is more Likely to cause stress than it is to
cause
outbreaks of acne.
(D) It is less likely that eating large amounts of chocolate causes acne than that
both the
chocolate eating and the acne are caused by stress.
(E) The more stress a person experiences, the more likely that person is to crave
chocolate,
More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's disease-a disease that is most
commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been
attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent
study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when
estrogen production in the body decreases, may prevent them from developing
the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against
Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, and
testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the
argument?
(A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher
occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.
(B) As one gets older, one's chances of developing Alzheimer's disease increase,
(C) Women who go through menopause earlier in life than do most other women
have an increased risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease.
(D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from
alzheimer's disease.
(E) Testosterone is necessary for preventing Alzheimer's disease in older men.
EXAMPLES: LET’S UNTANGLE NEW ARGUMENTS!

To decrease the number of crimes in city Y, the city’s Police

Commissioner proposed taking some police officers from
low-crime districts of the city and moving them to high-
crime districts of the city. His proposal is based on city Y
crime data that show that the number of crimes in any
district of the city decreases when additional police
officers are moved into that district.
EXAMPLES: LET’S UNTANGLE!

Researchers studying the spread of the Black Plague in

sixteenth-century England claim that certain people
survived the epidemic because they carried a genetic
mutation, known as Delta-32, that is known to prevent the
bacteria that causes the Plague from overtaking the
immune system. To support this hypothesis, the
researchers tested the direct descendants of the residents
of an English town where an unusually large proportion of
people survived the Plague. More than half of these
descendants tested positive for the mutation Delta-32, a
figure nearly three times higher than that found in other
locations.
EXAMPLES: LET’S UNTANGLE!
An oil field prospector and developer reported a large oil
deposit in southwestern Texas. As a result, a large oil and
gas company purchased the field with the intention of
drilling oil wells in the area soon afterwards. However, the
company found that what had been reported to be a large
oil deposit was actually much smaller than had been
indicated. Thus, the methods that the prospector had used
to determine the size of the oil deposit must have been
inaccurate.
OK!
NOW. ONCE WE DO THAT…
WE MUST SEE IF IT HAS AN ASSUMPTION/S
IF SO
WE MUST IDENTIFY THAT!
(THIS IS THE TRICKIEST/MOST DIFFICULT
PART IN CR!)
 ASSUMPTION!
• This is very critical as 99% of arguments have assumptions.

• WHAT IS IT?
• Unstated reason
• Hidden reason
• Anything that has to be true for the author’s conclusion to be true BUT NOT
MENTIONED IN THE ARGUMENT!

• How to identify…
• SIMPLE EXAMPLES: Ram is a student of FC college. Therefore, he must be a
member of the Country Club.
• IS THERE ANY HIDDEN REASON
 ASSUMPTION!

• Example:
• Ram cannot go to the store because his car is in the repair shop.
• In this argument, the author says two things explicitly:
• Ram’s car is in the repair shop.
• Ram cannot go to the store.

• What is/are the assumption/s in the above?

 ASSUMPTION!
• Types of assumption for a better understanding of logic of an argument

• Type 1:
• MISSING LINK ASSUMPTION
 EXAMPLES:
• 1. Non-vegetarianism is wrong because it is unnatural.

• 2 Moby Dick is a whale. So Moby Dick is a mammal.

• 3 Giving students a fail grade will damage their self-confidence.

Therefore, we should not fail students.

• 4 It should not be illegal for adults to smoke pot. After all, it does
not harm anyone.
 PRACTICE
• 5 There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during
lectures. Other students do it all the time.

• 6 Killing an innocent person is wrong. Therefore, abortion is

wrong.
•
• 7 Traces of ammonia have been found in Mars' atmosphere. So
there must be life on Mars.
 ASSUMPTION!

• Type 2:
• Relevance assumption!

• Shows that the premises relevant to the conclusion or vice versa.

• For ex. Sachin should be removed from the team. Because he is not playing
well.
• Assumption: players who do not play well should be removed.
 ASSUMPTION!

• Type 3:
• CAUSE AND EFFECT ASSUMPTION
 CAUSE AND EFFECT ASSUMPTION

• Details…
• It is snowing today. Therefore the schools shall
be closed today.
• Assumption: if it snows the schools are closed.
 ASSUMPTION!

• Type 4:
• Trickiest of all…
• BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE REAL COMMON SENSE IS
TESTED!
• DEFENDER ASSUMPTION!

• LET’S TAKE SIMPLE EXAMPLES FIRST!

 The defender assumption:
• The defender assumption is any idea that the author rejects in his mind as false to
go ahead with his argument.

• The defender role is entirely different from the supporter role/ missing link role.
•
• They protect the argument by eliminating ideas that could weaken the argument.
 Example…
Ram is intelligent. Ram reads a lot Thus, reading
must make a person intelligent.

The author, here, feels that, “reading causes intelligence”.

This also means, in his mind,
ALL other alternative explanations are assumed NOT TO EXIST.
Literally, the author assumes that any idea that would weaken the argument is impossible and cannot occur.
Let’s consider some of the ideas that attack the conclusion above:
Reading a lot causes a person to be intelligent.
Studying philosophy causes a person to be intelligent.
Genetic endowment causes a person to be intelligent.
Each of these ideas attacks the author’s argument, but they are assumed not to be
possible by the author: Which means—the author assumes that…
Reading a lot DOES NOT cause a person to be intelligent.
Studying philosophy DOES NOT cause a person to be intelligent.
Genetic endowment DOES NOT cause a person to be intelligent.
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CAT LEVEL
PRACTICE OF ASSUMPTION
QUESTIONS?
The earth’s resources are being depleted much too fast. To
correct this, the United States must keep its resource
consumption at present levels for many years to come.
The argument above depends on which of the following
assumptions?
(A) Per capita resource consumption in the United States is at
an all-time high.
(B) The United States wastes resources.
(C) The United States uses more resources than any other
country.
(D) The United States imports most of the resources it uses.
(E) Curbing U.S. resource consumption will significantly retard
world resource depletion.
The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions
made about marketing by her clients and concluded that the
decisions were correct only about half of the time.
The conclusion above depends on the presupposition that
(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the
decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong
(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more
incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general
(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions
rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm
(D) marketing decision are just as likely to be correct as they
are to be incorrect
(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as
being either right or wrong
When limitations were in effect on nuclear-arms testing, people tended
to save more of their money, but when nuclear-arms testing increased,
people tended to spend more of their money. The perceived threat of
nuclear catastrophe, therefore, decreases the willingness of people to
postpone consumption for the sake of saving money.
The argument above assumes that
(A) the perceived threat of nuclear catastrophe has increased over the
years
(B) most people supported the development of nuclear arms
(C) people’s perception of the threat of nuclear catastrophe depends on
the amount of nuclear-arms testing being done
(D) the people who saved the most money when nuclear-arms testing
was limited were the ones who supported such limitations
(E) there are more consumer goods available when nuclear-arms testing
increases
A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune-
system activity tend to score much lower on tests of mental health than
do people with normal or high immune-system activity. The researcher
concluded from this experiment that the immune system protects
against mental illness as well as against physical disease.
The researcher’s conclusion depends on which of the following
assumptions?
(A) High immune-system activity protects against mental illness better
than normal immune-system activity does.
(B) Mental illness is similar to physical disease in its effects on body
system.
(C) People with high immune-system activity cannot develop mental
illness.
(D) Mental illness does not cause people’s immune-system activity to
decrease.
(E) Psychological treatment of mental illness is not as effective as is
medical treatment.
It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young
adults live longer than those who never marry. This dose not show that
marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other
people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married
have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a
shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports

that involve risk of bodily harm.
B. A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give
up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.
C. A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to
marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is
true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give
up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in
life.
E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol
immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those
who marry.
It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young
adults live longer than those who never marry. This dose not show that
marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other
people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married
have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a
shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports

that involve risk of bodily harm.
B. A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give
up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.
C. A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to
marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is
true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give
up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in
life.
E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol
immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those
who marry.