Self-paced
Some people claim that the reason herbs are not prescribed as drugs by licensed physicians is that the medical effectiveness of herbs is seriously in doubt. ██ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████████ ████████ ███ █ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ██████
Summary
The author concludes that under the current system, licensed physicians cannot recommend the medicinal use of herbs.
Why?
Because in order for a drug to be offered for sale, it must have regulatory-agency approval for medicinal use in specific illnesses/conditions.
Getting regulatory-agency approval for a drug is so expensive that one must be the holder of a patent to recover the cost of getting the approval.
Herbs and their medicinal uses cannot be patented.
12.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████
a
questioning a claim █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███████████
This accurately describes the author's reasoning. The thing being explained is why licensed physicians do not prescribe herbs. One group says it is because the effectiveness of herbs is in doubt. The author questions that account by laying out a different cause: the patent and approval system makes it financially impossible to get herbs approved as drugs.
b
attacking the validity ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ █ █████████ █████ ██ █████
The author never challenges any data. The first group's claim, that herbs' effectiveness is in doubt, is not backed by figures or studies that the author then disputes. The author simply sets that claim aside and explains the situation a different way, so there is no attack on the validity of data here.
c
revealing an inconsistency ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████
The author does not show the opposing position contradicting itself. Revealing an inconsistency would mean pointing out that the other group's own claims go against each other.
d
identifying all plausible ████████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████████
The author offers only one alternative explanation, not a full list of every possible one. This answer requires identifying all plausible explanations and then knocking out all but a single survivor. The author never claims to have gathered every candidate explanation, and never eliminates a set of them.
e
testing a theory ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █ ████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████
There is no theory being tested against its predictions. This describes checking whether a real situation matches what some theory would forecast. The author is not running that kind of check. The author is giving a causal explanation for why physicians do not prescribe herbs, not measuring a situation against a theory's predictions.