1. What is the best challenge to the strength or reliability of the argument: Lichtenstein and Uzbekistan are the only countries in the world that are double land-locked. That means that not only do they not border any oceans, but none of the countries that border them border any oceans. Lichtenstein is the world’s largest producer of false teeth. So Uzbekistan probably produces a lot of false teeth too.

a. Because we don’t hear much about Uzbekistan, we would not expect to have evidence of its major exports even if it were true that it did produce many false teeth.

b. The author of the argument is either not an expert on Uzbekistan or is being insincere in drawing such a conclusion.

c. The similarity listed is irrelevant to the feature in the conclusion.

d. One couldn’t evaluate the argument as a good argument without already accepting the conclusion.

1. Suppose that Joe is trying to determine how many commercial properties in Michigan have been for on the market for over one year. He hasn’t the time to comb through every single listing. He must try to determine the number by investigating a subset of the properties for sale. He decides to check one hundred listings in the metro Detroit area and 50 listings in the Upper Peninsula. He counts all of the listings that have a listing date at or before today’s date last year as having been on the market for over a year. Which of the following criticisms is NOT a criticism of the strength or reliability of the sampling argument produced by Joe’s research? 

a. Sometimes properties are relisted just so the listing date is not so long ago. So his research might not reveal what he wants it to reveal.

b. Given the number of commercial properties for sale in Michigan, 150 is too few to check.

c. Joe’s method of selecting the 150 properties means that his sample is not representative of the great variety of commercial properties available in Michigan.

d. All of these are criticisms of the strength or reliability of the sampling argument (so none are not).