QUESTION TEXT: Current evidence indicates that there is no…
QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption
CONCLUSION: If there is no methane, then there is no life on Planet 253.
REASONING: Microbes produce methane. If there is no methane, then there are no microbes.
ANALYSIS: This argument is missing the connection between microbes and life. We have the following conditional statements:
If no methane ➔ no life
If microbes ➔ methane
(contrapositive: no methane ➔ no microbes)
All that’s missing is a link that says:
if no microbes ➔ no life
___________
- The stimulus employs conditional statements so we don’t need to actually establish that this is true.
- Being able to detect its presence is not mentioned in the stimulus.
- “Never” is extreme and the conditional statements we’re given wouldn’t trigger this condition.
- CORRECT. This matches our prephrase exactly.
- This is an illegal negation of our conclusion. This says, “if methane ➔ life”.
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