UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (UTAR)

CENTRE FOR FOUNDATION STUDIES

FOUNDATION IN ARTS

FHHM1012 CRITICAL THINKING

Tutorial 7

Mid-Term Revision Task

Section A:

Identify whether each of the following is an argument, explanation, conditional statement,

unsupported assertion, illustration or report. Write the answer in the empty space provided
in the box below.
I think parents are worried to have babies because once the babies
Q1. are born, they are going to be handed the expensive phone
anyway.
You will be given a warning letter if you are miss even a single
Q2.
meeting.
Hunger does not always show itself as a rumbling stomach.
Q3.
Tiredness and irritability are some common symptoms of hunger.
The sky appears blue from the earth’s surface because light rays
Q4
from the sun are scattered by particles in the atmosphere.
The majority of college students are civic-minded. They do some
Q5. sort of volunteer work and people who volunteer tend to be civic-
minded.
Recent studies conducted by five researchers from the neurology
department at Columbia University Medical Center in New York
Q6.
have looked at the possible preventive effects of the typical diet
eaten by people in countries around the Mediterranean sea.
Breathing is the process that moves air in and out of the lungs, to
Q7. allow the diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the
external environment into and out of the blood.
Should you buy a bunch of herbs to use in recipes, do not waste
Q8.
the leftovers.
There is no doubt that when people talk to themselves, they are
Q9.
mentally retarded.
Mariana was the black sheep of the family as she was an adopted
Q10. child.
Section B: Identify the premise(s) and conclusion in each of the following texts. Write out the
specific sentences. Provide a suitable indicator word for the conclusion wherever possible.

Q1. If Mexico is in South America, then Mexico is not a country bordering the United States.
Mexico is in South America. Hence, Mexico is not a country bordering the United States.

Premise 1: ____________________________________________________________

Premise 2: ____________________________________________________________

Conclusion: Hence, Mexico is not a country bordering the United States.

Q2. Scientific discoveries are continually debunking religious myths. Further, science provides
the only hope for solving the many problems faced by humankind. Hence, science provides
a more accurate view of human life than does religion.

Premise 1: ____________________________________________________________

Science provides the only hope for solving the many problems faced by
Premise 2:
humankind.
Conclusion: ____________________________________________________________

Q3. Liverpool won the national championship in football last year, and fifteen of its twenty-
two starting players are returning this year. They will win the national championship
again this year.

Premise 1: ___________________________________________________________

Premise 2: ___________________________________________________________

Conclusion: ___________________________________________________________

Q4. All humans should think creatively because all humans have the capacity for creative
thought and all capacities should be developed and used.

Premise 1: __________________________________________________________

Premise 2: __________________________________________________________

Conclusion: _________________________________________________________
SECTION C:

Select the best answer to the following multiple-choice questions by circling the appropriate
letter.

1. Consider the following situation:

“My friends are coming over for dinner tonight, and I know that at least two of them do
not take meat. I have, however, accidentally used some meat stock for the soup, but I took
the trouble to add some vegetable stock to dilute the meat. I should just serve them this
soup and not tell them anything about the accident, though. You see, what they do not
know will not hurt them.”

The person drawing the conclusion printed in bold above is likely encountering the
critical thinking barrier of:

A. Conformism C. Self-interested thinking

B. Stereotyping D. Group bias

2. Which of the following patterns of reasoning seeks to draw a conclusion based on the
strength of what a person or a group of people has claimed?

A. Argument from analogy C. Causal argument

B. Hypothetical syllogism D. Argument from authority

3. "I have not prepared for my test tomorrow, but I shall just go to bed early, wake up fresh
tomorrow, and be confident that the correct answers will appear in my mind as I read
over each question."

The above is an example of _____________________.

A. Subjectivism C. Wishful Thinking

B. Conformism D. Self-serving Bias

4. Which of the following patterns of reasoning is NOT categorised as a deductive

argument?

A. Predictive argument C. Argument by definition

B. Modus Tollens D. Argument by elimination

5. Which among the following topics is the least likely to be considered an issue to be
argued in an argumentative essay?
A. Cancer awareness C. Difficulties faced by a student
B. Environmental pollution in cities D. Teenage bullying in Kampar
 6. Jason is a jerk! Therefore, Jason has very few friends.
Which pattern of reasoning does the above argument correspond with?

A. Argument from analogy

B. Argument from definition
C. Predictive argument
D. Argument by elimination

7. Which of the following is an example of a causal argument?

A. I tend to avoid large crowds of unfamiliar people because I often feel nervous
among strangers.
B. The man in the back seat of the taxi should speak more politely to the driver because
nobody likes working for an uncouth passenger.
C. The grandstand at the stadium was probably made of poor quality wood. Even before
the game had started, when the grandstand was only half filled I noticed it seemed to
be shaking.
D. Helen is likely to fail her exam. She has barely spent any time going over any of her
notes. She has also missed too many lectures.

SECTION D:
State if each of the following statements is ‘True’ or ‘False’ in the space provided.

1. 50 UTAR students dropped out of the Mathematics for Business course last
trimester. This was exactly 50% of the total number who registered at the start of
the trimester. Hence, 100 students registered for the course at the start of the
trimester.
The above is an example of a statistical argument.
2. Egocentrism can cause a thinker to make decisions based on a personally biased
viewpoint.
3. Critical thinking standards encourage the individual to obtain facts from sources
regardless whether the sources are reliable or not.
4. A hypothetical syllogism is an argument that uses a conditional statement as one of
its premises.
5. Janelle did not require any help from her colleagues in preparing the progress
report. She also did not seem to need help from anyone in the last two assignments
that she was given. It is probable that she will be fine on her own when we assign
her the year-end proposal.
The above is an example of a causal argument.
6. The difference between a predictive argument and a causal argument is that a
predictive argument relates to a situation that has already happened while a causal
argument provides a conclusion that refers to a future time.