UOW College Hong Kong

CGE14411 Critical Thinking

Semester B, 2020-21
Take-home Test

READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY!

General Instruction

1. Students have 48 hours to complete the test.

2. The deadline for submission is 30th April, 2021, before 12 noon.
3. Submit a soft-copy of your answers to the instructor’s email account. Hard-copy is not
needed.
4. Instructors will not entertain enquiries unrelated to submission during the period of the test.
5. Resubmission and late submission will not be accepted.
6. Indicate clearly your name, your student number, and your lecture section (e.g. C01) on the
first page of your answer.
7. Weight: 40%

Part 1: Linguistic Errors (8 questions)

1. You need to identify the misuses of language, if any, in the below statements, explain how
they may hamper reasoning and suggest ways that the statement can be improved.
2. Pay special attention to the underlined words.
3. Three statements do not have underlined words.
4. A complete answer must consist of two parts: (1) type of misuse and (2) explanation.
5. A sample is given to show the format of answers expected.
6. Assessment weight: 12% (1.5% for each question)

Questions
1) “Edith cannot act morally, because only man is capable of obeying complex moral rules, and
Edith is not a man,” says a moral philosopher.
2) “Mary gave Aurora’s daughter her cell phone because she demands it,” says David.
3) “To travel Macau, you need a valid health code issued by the Hong Kong Government or a
medical certificate issued by a registered doctor and other relevant documents,” says an
immigration officer.
4) “Hello gentlemen, shopping for a woman this Valentine’s Day?” says the manager of a
shopping mall.
5) “It is useful to read books about how to invest in stocks,” says the owner of a bookstore.
6) “Mary left the house in a better state,” says Mary’s landlord.
7) “Few of the students are sufficiently qualified for the scholarship,” says the principal of
ABC university.
8) “Doctors at public hospitals were told to stop accepting patients in December due to the
shortage of public funding,” says a news headliner.
 Example
Statement:
The President of the United States has cancelled a trip to Beijing to attend a trade talk.
Answer:
Type of misuse:
Syntactic ambiguity (1%)

Explanation:
We are not sure whether the purpose of the cancelled trip was to attend a trade talk or
whether the trip was cancelled so that the President of the United States could attend a trade
talk (elsewhere than Beijing). (0.5%)

Part 2: “Necessary and Sufficient Conditions” (3 questions)

• For each part, decide whether the first member of the pair is either a necessary condition for
the second, a sufficient condition, both necessary and sufficient condition, or neither.
• The following sample shows the format of answers.
• Assessment weight: 3% (1% for each)

1. X is being greater than 0.0000002.

X is being smaller than 1345028.

2. Mary has a grandfather.

Mary is someone’s daughter.

3. Michael has two cats and five dogs.

Michael has some pets.

Sample
Being a tall person.
Being a successful person.
Answer:
Being a tall person is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for being a successful
person. A tall person is not necessarily a successful person. Also, a successful person can be a
short person.

Marking scheme:
Correctly determine the relationship between the members of the pair: 1%

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Part 3: Informal Fallacies (7 questions)

• In each dialogue below, determine whether Philips committed any fallacy. If so, explain
what the main fallacy is. If not, you only need to write down "no fallacy".
• The example below shows how to formulate your answers.
• Assessment weight: 10.5% (1.5% for each question)

Questions
1) Philips: Nothing is visible.
Aurora: Why?
Philips: Everything around us is made of atoms, and atoms are invisible.
2) Aurora: Why do you think you have a right to use my car?
Philips: I am your best friend. It is your obligation to let your best friend to use your
belongings.
3) Aurora: What do you think about Bill’s argument for the rights of animals?
Philips: I think you can ignore his argument. The reason is simple. He is not a vegetarian!
4) Aurora: Do you believe in heaven and hell?
Philips: No, it’s because no one has ever come up with proof that they exist.
5) Aurora: Why do you think that the President is lying about his tax returns?
Philips: The reason is simple. Everyone surveyed in national polls thinks he’s lying. So, the
President must be a liar.
6) Philips: Do you know Bill’s final grade in Prof. Buffett’s accounting class?
Aurora: He said he received an A.
Philips: That’s amazing! He must have received an A in all the assignments.
7) Aurora: Is studying at ABC secondary school stressful?
Philips: No. A questionnaire was sent to 500 randomly chosen students, and 200 responses
were collected, only 30% of which agree with the claim that it is stressful to study at ABC
secondary school.

Example
Question:
Councilor Alex: "We'll have to cut education funding this year."
Councilor Bill: "Why?"
Councilor Alex: "Well, either we cut the funding for education or we live with a huge deficit
and we can't live with the deficit."
Answer (name the fallacy and explain how Alex’s argument fits the fallacy):
This is a false dilemma.
Alex assumes that there only two choices (1) the government has to cut education or (2) live
with a huge deficit. But this is not true. There can be other choices such as increasing tax or
cutting other unnecessary government expenses. There are actually other choices.
Marking scheme:
1. Correct naming of the fallacy: 1% (this part must be correct in order for the rest to earn
marks)
2. Explanation: 0.5%

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Part 4: Cognitive biases (7 questions)

1. Examine the following statements to find out whether there is a cognitive bias in Michael’s
reasoning. If there is a bias, name it and explain why Michael’s reasoning is erroneous. An
example is given to show the style of answers expected. If a statement does not have a
cognitive bias, then you should write ‘the statement is correct’, plus an explanation.
2. Follow the given example in formulating your answers.
3. Assessment weight: 10.5% (1.5% for each question)

Questions
1. Michael who is looking for physical signs of lying on his daughter mistakenly classify some
of her behaviours as evidence of lying.
2. Michael: “I think ABC University is the best university in Hong Kong.”
Alex: “Why?”
Michael: “Well, many highly successful people have studied there so it is the best!”
3. Michael teaches English in secondary schools. When he finds grammatical errors in his
students’ assignments, he tends to think it is the result of a poor grasp of grammar. When he
finds grammatical errors when proofreading his own work, he tends to think they are the
results of simple typographical errors.
4. Michael’s company has invested in a lot of training for its employees to do graphical editing
with ABC software. Last month, ABC software changed its licensing policies and now
demands $40,000 for a company-wide license for the software. Because of its tradition of
using ABC software, Michael’s company does not consider switching to the free and open
source XYZ software, which also has the features it needs. Eventually, this brings Michael’s
company to the brink of bankruptcy.
5. Michael’s COVID vaccine, which is labelled as being 95% effective, sell much better than
those with the equivalent label of having a 5% risk of failure.
6. When Michael was asked how likely he thought it was that Donald Trump would be elected
before the election took place, he claimed he expected Trump to win. But when he was
asked the same question after the election, he claimed he firmly expected a Joe Biden’s win.
7. Several months after a high-speed train crash being widely covered in the mainstream news,
Michael tends to give a high estimate of the likelihood of a high-speed train crash.

Example
Question:
Alex: I bought the ticket to watch this movie. It cost me $120. Right, the movie was boring
and of poor quality. However, I could not waste the money by just walking out of the cinema
half way.
Answer (name the bias and explain how Alex’s argument fits the bias):
This is a sunk cost fallacy.
The ticket was paid and could not be recovered. Alex just had to spend his time on the boring
movie, which was an additional cost. That was not to his benefit.
Marking scheme:
Correct naming of the bias: 1% (this part must be correct in order for the rest to earn marks)
Explanation: 0.5%

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Part 5: Logical Deduction (2 questions)

1. The following arguments may or may not involve fallacies in deductive reasoning. Students
have to indicate whether the deductive reasoning was valid or not, and explain by showing
your analysis in the format shown in the examples.
2. Assessment weight: 4% (2% for each question)

Statements

1) If Candy talks to Andy, Anson will not be friend with Candy. If Anson stops being friend
with Candy, then Andy will not be friend with Anson. Andy and Anson are not friends with
each other. Therefore, Candy talks to Anson.

2) Mary will go to school, unless Sally does not go to school. Sally will go to school only if
Dorothy goes to school. Sally is now at school. Therefore, both Mary and Dorothy are also at
school.

Example
All students who graduate from universities must be able to write good academic papers. A
student must have an adequate command of English in order to write good academic papers.
Unless you study English hard, you definitely cannot achieve an adequate command of
English. Therefore, those who graduate from universities must have studied English hard.
Marking scheme:
1. Correct answer about “valid” or “invalid” (1%)
2. Correct identification of pattern (1%)
3. Clear and correct explanation why the pattern is valid or invalid (0.5%)
Answer:
1. Valid.
2. Pattern:
P: graduate from universities
Q: write good academic papers
R: adequate command of English
S: study English hard
a. (If P then Q)
b. (If Q then R)
c. (If not S then not R; or If R then S)
d. Therefore, (If P then S)
3. Explanation:
The reason follows the pattern of hypothetical syllogism (if P then Q, if Q then R and If R
then S, therefore, If P then S).

END