Multiple choice

Directions: Read the following passage/information and answer the question that follows.

We must do something about the rising cost of our state prisons. It now costs an average of $132 per day to maintain a prisoner in a double-occupancy cell in a state prison. Yet, in the most expensive cities in the world, one can find rooms in the finest hotels which rent for less than $125 per night.

The argument given above might be criticised in all of the following ways, except that

  1. it introduces an inappropriate analogy

  2. it relies on an unwarranted appeal to authority

  3. it fails to take account of costs which prisons have, but hotels do not have

  4. it misuses numerical data

  5. it does not indicate the cost of maintaining a prisoner in such other cities
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The chief failing of the argument is that it draws a false analogy. Since prisons are required to feed and maintain as well as house prisoners, the analogy to a hotel room is weak at best. (3) focuses on this specific shortcoming. Remember, in evaluating the strength of an argument from analogy, it is important to look for dissimilarities, which might make the analogy inappropriate. Thus, (1) is also a good criticism of the argument of which (3) is the specification. (4) is also a specific objection, i.e. the argument compares two numbers, which are not at all similar. (2) is not an argument for the author never cites an authority.

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