Self-study
Because addictive drugs are physically harmful, their use by athletes is never justified. ████████ ████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████████████████ ████████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that athletes’ use of nonaddictive drugs should not be banned. As support, the author claims that almost everything in sports is unnatural (and that many things are permitted despite being unnatural). The author also says that focus should be on more serious issues in sports that result in deaths and injuries instead of focusing on banning nonaddictive drugs because they are unnatural.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that nonaddictive drugs are not physically harmful and do not result in injury or death. Additionally, the author just rejects one reason to ban nonaddictive drugs, then claims that nonaddictive drugs should not be banned. The most that the author has done is demonstrate that nonaddictive drugs should not be banned on the basis of being unnatural; there could be other reasons why nonaddictive drugs should be banned.
16.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████
a
Massive doses of ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████████ ████████████
The examples of tools given by the author (high-tech running shoes and specialized machines) also enhance athletic performance. The author isn’t saying that things that enhance athletic performance should be banned; the author is just saying that nonaddictive drugs shouldn’t be banned.
b
Addictive drugs are ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
The author believes that addictive drugs should be banned. But this is because they are physically harmful, not because they are unnatural. Also, the argument concerns nonaddictive drugs, so additional information about addictive drugs does not weaken the argument.
c
Unnecessary deaths and ████████ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████
The argument is about whether or not nonaddictive drugs should be banned in sports; risk of death or injury in other areas of life is completely irrelevant to the specific claims made in this argument.
d
There would be ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████████ █████████
(D) demonstrates some benefits of other unnatural tools used in sports; this does not weaken the argument. This actually gives a reason that some unnatural things have a positive role in sports.
e
Taking massive doses ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████████
The author accepts that addictive drugs are banned because they are physically harmful; there is no information given on the physical impacts of nonaddictive drugs. If nonaddictive drugs are physically harmful, the argument that they shouldn’t be banned is much weaker.