PT68 section 3 #16 (LR) Forum

[june2014]

I'm confused because I thought the placement of "the" in front of "most important problems" in the last sentence of the stimulus changes the meaning of that sentence to something like "politicians can't solve our most important problems," NOT "politicians can solve only a few of our problems." I understand that the argument is committing a flaw of mistaken reversal, but I just don't understand how the last sentence of the stimulus matches up with answer choice (A). Anyone who can provide insight on this will be much appreciated!

[charles_monster]

It is a pretty standard one. The test maker simply wants you to focus on the conclusion: the decreasing voter turnout is thus entirely due to a growing xxx.

==> this leads to the flaw: entirely, how? the political scientist hasn't even considered other possibilities yet.
That's what I thought, I chose A immediately and scanned through the rest, finding no better one, picked A and moved on

[BPlaura]

Keep in mind that the belief in question is defined in the argument's premise as the belief that "problems can be solved ONLY by large numbers of people changing their opinions." This language is consistent with (A) - if problems can only be solved by voters, then politicians themselves can solve very few problems. The language in the conclusion is intended as a paraphrase of the premise, which is why (A) follows.

[Christine (MLSAT)]

june2014, I'm afraid I misunderstood your original question on this. I've posted a more thorough explanation to your original thread: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=224332