UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Statement A correctly defines the ad hominem fallacy as an attack on the person rather than the argument. Statement B accurately describes the straw man technique of distorting an opponent’s view. Statement C is also correct, as hasty generalisation relies on too few or biased examples to support a broad claim. Statement D is false because valid deductive arguments are structurally correct, not fallacious, and E is false since an expert authority can provide legitimate support in many contexts. Hence A, B and C only are correct, which is option C.

Option A:
Option A is incomplete since it omits C and thereby leaves out a major type of fallacy frequently tested in NET reasoning questions.

Option B:
Option B is incorrect as it includes D, which wrongly labels all valid deductions as fallacies, and it omits C, so it contains an error and misses one correct fallacy definition.

Option C:
Option C is correct because it gathers the accurate characterisations of three distinct and important fallacies, while excluding D and E, which misdescribe valid deduction and the role of authority.

Option D:
Option D is wrong since it includes E, which claims that appeal to authority is always fallacious, ignoring legitimate expert testimony, and it omits A, losing a key fallacy type.

Statements D and E are wrong, whereas A, B, C and F are correct descriptions of informal fallacies and critical thinking. Hasty generalisation actually involves insufficient or biased samples, not large and representative ones, so D reverses the definition. Slippery slope arguments can be fallacious when the alleged chain of events is not well supported, so E is also false. A, B and C correctly identify ad hominem, straw man and false cause, and F rightly points out the value of spotting fallacies. Therefore the wrong statements are exactly D and E.

Option A:
Option A is incorrect because it selects only D as wrong and ignores E, which also mischaracterises slippery slope arguments. By treating only one of the two erroneous statements as wrong, it fails to capture the full set of incorrect claims. Hence D only cannot be accepted.

Option B:
Option B is also incomplete since it marks only E as wrong and overlooks the error in D about hasty generalisation. Both D and E distort standard definitions, so recognising only one of them gives an incomplete diagnosis. For that reason E only is not a satisfactory answer.

Option C:
Option C is correct because it groups D and E, the two statements that clearly conflict with the usual treatment of these fallacies. It leaves A, B, C and F intact, all of which match textbook descriptions of informal fallacies and their role in reasoning. This option therefore identifies the complete set of wrong statements.

Option D:
Option D is wrong because it adds C to D and E as though C were also false. In fact, C correctly describes a common form of false cause reasoning where correlation is mistaken for causation. Including C among wrong statements therefore makes the option logically inconsistent.