Question

Beautiful beaches attract people, no doubt about it. Just look at this city's beautiful beaches, which are among the most overcrowded beaches in the state. Which of the following exhibits a pattern of reasoning most similar to the one exhibited in the argument above?

• A. Moose and bear usually appear at the same drinking hole at the same time of day. Therefore, moose and bear must grow thirsty at about the same time.
• B. Children who are scolded severely tend to misbehave more often than other children. Hence if a child is not scolded severely that child is less likely to misbehave.
• C. This software programme helps increase the work efficiency of its users. As a result, these users have more free time for other activities.
• D. During warm weather my dog suffers from fleas more than during cooler weather. Therefore, fleas must thrive in a warm environment.

Hint:

Look for the option that also jumps from one specific personal example straight to a sweeping general claim.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The trick in these “similar reasoning” questions is to describe the original argument's shape in the most generic terms possible, then match that shape, not the topic, against each option.

1. Shape of the original: one particular case (this city's beaches) is used as proof of a general claim (beautiful beaches attract crowds everywhere).
2. Moose and bear option: infers a shared underlying cause (thirst timing) from an observed pattern, a different shape (correlation to cause).
3. Scolding option: takes a stated correlation and reverses it into a new claim about the opposite condition, another different shape.
4. Software option: states a cause and directly claims its effect, a simple two-step cause-effect claim, not a generalisation from an example.
5. Dog and fleas option: takes one specific case (my dog in warm weather) and generalises it into a broad claim about fleas in general, which is exactly the same single-example-to-sweeping-general-rule shape as the beach argument.

Only the flea option matches the original argument's structure.

So the correct answer is option D.