Practice Exam: Identifying Premises & Conclusions

Writing is revision because excellence emerges only though many cycles of writing and reading, performance and feedback.

Premise: Excellence emerges only though many cycles of writing and reading, performance and feedback

Conclusion: Writing is revision

No scientific hypothesis can be conclusively confirmed because the possibility of someday finding evidence to the contrary can't be ruled out.

Premise: The possibility of someday finding evidence against a scientific hypothesis can never be ruled out

Conclusion: No scientific hypothesis can be conclusively confirmed

Genuine moral integrity requires intellectual character, for bona fide moral decisions require thoughtful discrimination between what is ethically justified and what is merely socially approved.

Premise: Bona fide moral decisions require thoughtful discrimination between what is ethically justified and what is merely socially approved.

Conclusion: Genuine moral integrity required intellectual character.

The study of logic increases one's ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments. For this reason, logic makes a vital contribution to the curriculum of the modern university.

Premise: The study of logic increases one's ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments

Conclusion: Logic makes a vital contribution to the curriculum of the modern university

Future generations of people have as much right to live a physically secure and healthy life as those of the present generation. Each of us is therefore under and obligation to allow the natural environment to deteriorate to such an extent that the survival and well-being of later human inhabitants of the Earth are jeopardized.

Premise: Future generations of people have as much right to live a physically secure and healthy life as those of the present generation

Conclusion: Each of us is therefore under and obligation to allow the natural environment to deteriorate to such an extent that the survival and well-being of later human inhabitants of the Earth are jeopardized

Don't pick up Alpine wildflowers—they really do look lovelier on the mountainsides.

Premise: Alpine flower really do look lovelier on the mountainsides

Conclusion: Don't pick Alpine wildflowers

I think that the Miss USA contestant should withdraw from the contest being that she's an adulteress.

Premise:The Miss USA contestant is an adulteress

Conclusion: The Miss USA contestant should withdraw from the contest

The effect of crime on the quality of life cannot be measured simply in terms of the actual incidence of crime, as the fear of the crime affects far more people than are likely to become victims and forces them to accept limitations on their freedom of action.

Premise: The fear of the crime affects far more people than are likely to become victims and forces them to accept limitations on their freedom of action

Conclusion: The effect of crime on the quality of life cannot be measured simply in terms of the actual incidence of crime

It is much to be doubted whether the manifest advantage of changing an established law, be it ever so bad, outweighs the evil involved in the removing of it, inasmuch as a government is a structure of various parts so closely joined together, that it is impossible to shake one part out without the whole body feeling the concussion.

Premise: A government is a structure of various parts so closely joined together, that it is impossible to shake one part out without the whole body feeling the concussion

Conclusion: It is much to be doubted whether the manifest advantage of changing an established law, be it ever so bad, outweighs the evil involved in the removing of it

Do not feed honey to infarcts under the age of one; their systems cannot digest it, and infant botulism may result.

Premise: Their systems cannot digest it, and infant botulism may result

Conclusion: Do not feed honey to infarcts under the age of one

Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

Premise: We are born selfish

Conclusion: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism

A glance at the nutrition charts will show that the various legumes differ slightly in their nutritional profile. It's a good idea, for that reason, to eat a wide variety of beans and peas.

Premise: A glance at the nutrition charts will show that the various legumes differ slightly in their nutritional profile

Conclusion: It's a good idea to eat a wide variety of beans and peas

The idea that something that is artificial is necessarily bad and something natural is necessarily good is false. After all, tobacco, poison ivy, and the prickly cactus are natural, while chemical fertilizers account for a large proportion of the food grown in the world.

Premise 1: Tobacco, poison ivy, and the prickly cactus are natural

Premise 2: Chemical fertilizers account for a large proportion of the food grown in the world

Conclusion: The idea that something that is artificial is necessarily bad and something natural is necessarily good is false

Get physical. People do better if they are touched and hugged regularly.

Premise: People do better if they are touched and hugged regularly

Conclusion: Get physical

Arguments from authority carry a little weight—"authorities" have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future.

Premise 1: "Authorities" have made mistakes in the past

Premise 2: They will do so again in the future

Conclusion: Arguments from authority carry little weight

[A]wareness of God is natural, widespread, and not easy to forget, ignore, or destroy. Seventy years of determined but unsuccessful Marxist efforts to uproot Christianity in the former Soviet Union tend to confirm this claim.

Premise: For seventy years, Marxists tried unsuccessfully to uproot Christianity int he former Soviet Union

Conclusion: Awareness of God is natural, widespread, and not easy to forget, ignore, or destroy

People of different religions see different religious figured during [near-death experiences], an indication that the phenomenon occurs within the mind, not without.

Premise: People of different religions see different religious figured during [near-death experiences]

Conclusion: Near-death experiences occur within the mind, not without

Pain is pain wherever it occurs. If your neighbor's causing you pain is wrong of the pain that is caused, we cannot rationally ignore or dismiss the moral relevance of the pain your dog feels.

Premise: Pain is wherever it occurs

Conclusion: If your neighbor's causing you pain is wrong of the pain that is caused, we cannot rationally ignore or dismiss the moral relevance of the pain your dog feels

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out f the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.

Premise: Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out f the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example

Conclusion: To be of no church is dangerous

There should be no confusion as to the right or wrong of capital punishment. We cannot have government-mandated violence and at the same time expect that young people, people of all ages, will be nonviolent.

Premise: We cannot have government-mandated violence and at the same time expect that young people, people of all ages, will be nonviolent

Conclusion: There should be no confusion as to the right or wrong of capital punishment