Critical Reasoning: Dialog Format
Social worker: A recent increase in alcohol and drug abuse has left many of our citizens homeless. I request that you allocate additional funds to the social administrators in order to provide these Lonelytown citizens with the appropriate living conditions.
Mayor: There is not a single person without a roof above their head in Lonelytown. Therefore, I do not think that any additional funds should be granted to the social sector of our administration.
Which of the following, if true, most supports the Social worker's request?
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the social worker's request as it does not help establish whether more funds should be allocated to the social administrators. On one hand, if friends and family can help the rehabilitation process then maybe there is no need to allocate more funds to the social administrators (this would weaken the social worker's claim). On the other hand, we don't know whether the aforementioned homeless people have this kind of support.
At any rate, this answer choice does not strengthen the social worker's case as you were required to do.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This statement neither weakens nor strengthens the social worker's request. The claim that managing a municipality's funds is a complex task does not actually favor any recipient of those funds - it's merely a generality.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This statement neither weakens nor strengthens the social worker's request. The fact that funds were given to the social administrators at some point in Lonelytown's history does not influence the argument in any way. We cannot assume that two years is a long time for such an event not to have repeated itself. Your task is to find a statement that supports the social worker's claim that additional funding should be given to take care of the homeless citizens.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This statement neither weakens nor strengthens the social worker's request. The reasons leading up to Lonelytown's drugs and alcohol abuse problem are irrelevant as this information cannot bring us any closer to strengthening the social worker's request.
This answer choice may even weaken the social worker's request as it indicates the town's financial resources have diminished, so it has less to give
Superb!
[[snippet]]This answer choice weakens the Mayor's refusal by claiming that despite the fact that there may not be a person in Lonelytown without a roof above their head, the social conditions are far from satisfactory. The fact that the conditions in the homeless shelters are poor strengthens the social worker's request for additional funds to improve these conditions.
