Self-study
Conclusion It is probably not true that colic in infants is caused by the inability of those infants to tolerate certain antibodies found in cow's milk, since Support it is often the case that symptoms of colic are shown by infants that are fed breast milk exclusively.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that colic in infants is probably not caused by certain antibodies found in cow’s milk. Why not? Because lots of infants who only drink breast milk, and so are never exposed to cow’s milk, also get colic.
Notable Assumptions
The author is assuming that infants who drink only breast milk are not exposed to the same antibodies which are found in cow’s milk. The author is also assuming that if colic were caused by the antibodies in question, it couldn’t also be separately caused by another factor.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
A study involving ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████
This does not weaken the argument. Whether or not there’s a genetic factor to colic is irrelevant to whether the antibodies in cow’s milk can cause colic. Plus, this doesn’t even establish a genetic factor without more context about colic rates outside of twins.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
Symptoms of colic █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████████ █████ █████
This does not weaken the argument. Whether or not colic goes away as children grow up has no bearing on what the initial cause of colic could be. This has nothing to do with any possible link between colic and cow’s milk antibodies.
c
In a study ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ █████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████
This does not weaken the argument. Undermining the link between cow’s milk and colic would strengthen, not weaken. We also don’t know the overall likelihood of an infant getting colic, and without context these numbers don’t actually mean much either way.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
d
When mothers of ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████
This weakens the argument. Now we have a link between cow’s milk and colic, even in infants who only drink breast milk. This undermines the support provided to the author’s conclusion that cow’s milk antibodies probably do not cause colic.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
e
Infants that are ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ █████
This does not weaken the argument. It doesn’t matter if the infants who are only fed breast milk can tolerate cow’s milk or not: they’re not drinking cow’s milk, but they’re still getting colic. This doesn’t interfere with the link between the author’s evidence and hypothesis.