Warm air tends to be humid, and as humidity of air increases, the amount of rainfall also increases. So, the fact that rainfall totals for most continents have been increasing over the past five years is strong evidence that the air temperature is increasing as well.
Question: Which one of the following has a flawed pattern of reasoning most similar to the flawed pattern of reasoning in the argument above?
Options:
A. Food that is fresh tends to be nutritious, and the more nutritious one’s diet the healthier one is. People today are generally healthier than people were a century ago. So it is likely that people today eat food that is fresher than the food people ate a century ago.
B. Your refusal to make public your personal finances indicates some sort of financial impropriety on your part, for people who do not reveal their personal finances generally are hiding some sort of financial impropriety.
C. People tend not to want to travel on mass transit when they are carrying bags and packages, and the more bags and packages one carries, the more awkward travel on mass transit becomes. Therefore, people who carry bags and packages tend to use automobiles rather than mass transit.
D. Statistics show that people are generally living longer and healthier lives than ever before. However, more people are overweight and fewer people exercise than ever before. Therefore, being lean and physically fit is essential neither to long life nor to good health.
E. People tend to watch only those television programs that they enjoy and appreciate. Since there are more television viewers today than there were ten years ago, it must be the case that viewers today are satisfied with at least some of the programs shown on television.
Answer: A