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#23162
Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (E)

The premise in this stimulus is that a gram of refined cane sugar contains the same number of calories as a gram of fructose, the natural sugar found in fruits and vegetables. The resulting conclusion is that a piece of candy and a piece of fruit made with equal amounts of cane sugar and fructose, respectively, will have the same amount of overall calories. What the stimulus fails to establish in getting to that conclusion is that no other substances containing calories exist within the candy or the fruit.

Answer Choice (A) This answer choice would be more appropriate if the issue involved the overall relative health benefits of candy as compared to fruit. The only issue in the stimulus, however, is that of the number of calories contained in each.

Answer Choice (B) No such presupposition is being made in the stimulus. The fact that both the fruit and the candy must have the same amount of fructose and sugar, respectively, is clearly established within the stimulus argument.

Answer Choice (C) There is no such confusion in the stimulus. The stimulus author has clearly and accurately differentiated between the two different types of sugar involved.

Answer Choice (D) The stimulus argument is not circular in nature, as this answer choice contends. The problem is that an unwarranted assumption has been made, not that the argument assumes what it is seeking to establish.

Answer Choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. The stimulus only gives us a comparison between the two types of sugar in candy and fruit. We have no information regarding what other ingredients are involved and whether or not those ingredients contain additional calories.
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 teddykim100
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#98242
Hello!

could you elaborate on why D is not the right answer?


the way I see it, if D is pointing out the author assumes that candy and fruit have have the same number of calories, isn't that an assumption the author is missing in their original argument?
 Rachael Wilkenfeld
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#98245
Let's start by breaking down the stimulus, Teddy.

We have a premise: The number of calories in a gram of refined cane sugar is the same as in a gram of fructose. The author then draws the conclusion that a piece of candy with the same amount of refined sugar as a piece of fruit has fructose is equally caloric to that piece of fruit.

Answer choice (D) describes a circular argument---that the premise and the conclusion are the same. But that's not what we have here. The author gives support for their conclusion that the fruit and candy have the same number of calories. The author jumps from because a component of the fruit and candy have the same number of calories, the whole items have the same number of calories. That's a part to whole error. There's a difference between the premise and conclusion, and that difference is where the error occurred. Answer choice (E) describes that error, stating that refined cane sugar might not be the only part of the candy with calories.

Hope that helps!
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 teddykim100
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#98247
That did help thank you.

Could you describe a scenario/question in which D would be the right answer? What would the author's argument look like instead?

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