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4

STUDIO

• The assumptions

provide the link between the evidence and the conclusion as long

as they are true. Assumptions are not stated but are deemed to ‘go without saying’;

in other words, proof is not given, so you have to read between the lines.

1.1.3

Reasoning

• Deductive:

the conclusion is deduced from generally accepted facts and a minor

premise. For example: all planets orbit the sun; Mars is a planet so Mars must orbit

the sun.

• Inductive

(most arguments): the conclusion is drawn from minor premises (ie

in-

ferred

from observation and patterns) that are believed to support the general case

of something (eg a theory) but do not provide

conclusive

proof; for example, Mars

moves around the sun and the earth moves around the sun so the sun is at the

centre of all the planets (

probable

). There are three key possibilities: the conclusion

is true with true premises and sound (valid) reasoning; the conclusion is false with

sound reasoning (but false premises); the conclusion is false with true premises

(but unsound reasoning).

In the verbal reasoning questions you have to be able to:

• practise reading the text

quickly

and

efficiently

: when you read the text for the first

time, you have to identify the different topics of which it talks about with a method

that consists in “scanning” it;

• focus

on the text and

ignore

what you know about the argument through other

means: some texts may deal with issues with which you are familiar or may report

facts or assumptions that contradict information commonly known about. Remem-

ber that the text must be the only source of information that you must consider;

• learn to interpret

keywords

that have a great probability of influencing the answers:

both the text and the questions may contain phrases or elements (such as “may”,

“might”, “can”, “cannot”; “only”, “the most”, “the least”, “commonly”, “frequently”,

“many”, “unlikely”, “impossible”, “average”) which can be read quickly and help

you giving the right answer;

• practise the key logic

rules

: rule 1: if A

B, non-B

non-A; rule 2: if A

, non-A

does not always imply non-B;

• distinguish

causation

and

link

: the text may present facts apparently related or really

linked to each other, but they cannot necessarily have a direct “cause and effect” re-

lationship. Be careful not to let you confuse by ambiguous statements which appear

to have a link but don’t really have.

1.2

Understanding argument 2: flaws; types of questions

These are errors in arguments leading to misleading or unsafe conclusions:

• Confusing correlation with causation. For example, death rates are higher in can-

cer patients receiving complementary therapies, so complementary therapies must