Unit 8 · Detecting Reasoning Errors
Sara and Mila — End-of-Term Score Error
Lesson 11 of 34
About this lesson
Two speakers make "if writing differs then reading differs" and "if reading is the same then writing is the same" — both look plausible, but the golden test is whether you can set up a simple equation to verify each claim.
Chapters
Question
At the end of each term, Mr Chen gives scores in reading and writing to each student in his English class. These two scores are then added together to give an overall score in English for the term (for example, a student with scores of 30 in reading and 40 in writing would have an overall score of 70 in English).
Last term, Sara and Mila got the same overall score in English.
Sara says: "If our scores in writing were different from each other, then our scores in reading must have been different too."
Mila says: "And if our scores in reading were the same, then our scores in writing must have been the same too."
If the information in the box is true, whose reasoning is correct?
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