Saturday, October 8, 2016

What Can Be Concluded (MBT and Soft MBT)


What is supported by the body of available evidence? A and B conclusively lead to what?

You are looking for something that is guaranteed to be true by the information you have been given. In other words, something that MUST BE TRUE.

Example:

Any sale item that is purchased can be returned for store credit but not for a refund of the purchase price. Every home appliance and every piece of gardening equipment is on sale with selected construction tools.

Answer:

Home appliance, gardening equipment and the selected construction tools cannot be returned for cash. Store credit only. No piece of gardening equipment is returnable for a refund.

Some points to consider:

1. For some claim to logically follow from certain information, that information has to guarantee that the claim is true. It isn't enough for the information to strongly support the claim; it has to consluviely establish the claim.

2. Answer choices are often incorrect because they take things one step beyond what the evidence supports. The claim might be too sweeping, they might say "all" when the evidence supports only a "most". Or where a statement about "likely to be" is warranted, an incorrect answer choice might say "is". Or where a statement about "all known cases" is warranted, an incorrect answer choice might say "all cases."

3. A modest or limited claim can be a correct answer even if the information supports a stronger claim. For example, there will be a festival every month and there will be a festival in June are equal statements.

4. Incorrect answers to questions about what logically follows can be claims that receive some support but that nevertheless could be false even though all of the information is correct.

Soft Must Be True
Some questions ask you to identify a position that is supported by a body of evidence but not supported conclusively.

You generally get some information rather than an argument. Choose the answer that receives strong support for the information you're provided with and eliminate the answer choices that receive no significant support (the incorrect answer choices).

An example

People should avoid taking the antacid calcium carbonate in doses larger than half a gram, for despite its capacity to neutralize stomach acids, calcium carbonate can increase the calcium level in the blood and thus impair kidney function. Moreover, just half a gram of it can stimulate the production of gastrin, a stomach hormone that triggers acid secretion

Prediction: Don't use in doses of larger than half a gram. Why? Two reasons: 1. calcium in blood can impair kidney function and 2. gastrin can be created which in turn leads to acid secretion.

Correct answer choice: Half a gram of calcium carbonate can causally contribute to both the secretion and the neutralization of stomach acids.

Some points to consider
1. Base your judgment about whether or not a particular answer choice is supported strictly on the information that is explicitly provided in the passage.

2. Support for the correct answer does not have to involved all of the information provided.

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