Lesson: Challenging Critical/Logical Reasoning - 18t01

Additional Question Types: Explain/Paradox, continued

Fifty-seven percent of the registered voters in this district claimed to support the Democratic candidate, and yet the Republican candidate won the election with 55 percent of the vote.

Try to identify and then resolve the discrepancy that appears in the argument above. Click Continue to compare your answer to ours.

Discrepancy: The Republican won even though more registered voters claimed to support the Democrat.

Resolution: A few explanations could resolve this paradox. It could be that the surveyed voters were not telling the truth. Or maybe many of the registered voters who claimed to support the Democrat did not in fact vote. If either of these things were true, then there would no longer be a discrepancy in the argument—both statements could be true.

Proceed to the next page to try an in-format question. First, however, review the following tips on how to manage Paradox questions:

• Before attempting to resolve a paradox, make sure you have a good grasp of what the paradox is.
• If you can, try prephrasing an answer that would resolve the paradox.
• Resolving paradoxes is often a matter of recognizing that two things that are being compared aren't really the same thing. Read critically to note these subtle distinctions.
• In Paradox/Explain questions, avoid choices that emphasize points already raised in the argument.

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