#26 - Every Labrador retriever in my neighborhood is a

[annabelle.swift]

I see why B is correct and why the other answers are wrong, but how do we know that the conclusion of the stimulus is causal rather than conditional?

I diagrammed the stimulus conclusion as Training Well-behaved. Isn't the author saying that if a dog is trained, then it will be well-behaved?

[Adam Tyson]

The premises are conditional, but the conclusion uses the phrase "accounts for," which is a causal indicator. It's more active than conditional reasoning, in that it tells us what is responsible for, or leads to, the effect. If the argument were to be purely conditional, the conclusion would have had to stay more passive, something like "thus these Labrador retrievers must have been trained."

[flowerpower]

In addition to including "most responsible," is (C) also wrong because the conclusion should have been: "Thus, it is being a mathematician, not being a musician, that accounts for being a good dancer?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi flowerpower!

You might be right that the conclusion could have been worded better--but on my reading, that additional language you provide wouldn't make answer choice (C) correct. As Kelsey notes above, a critical problem with answer choice (C) is that it does not match the structure of the argument. Even if it is flawed, that alone doesn't make it the right answer choice. The right answer choice has to match the structure of the stimulus as well.