Self-study
Every year, new reports appear concerning the health risks posed by certain substances, such as coffee and sugar. ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████ █████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ █████ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument
Our argument says that decisions about one’s health should not be based on what experts say, because articles from unknown sources in different years published conflicting information about whether or not coffee is good for health.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author makes a broad conclusion about using expert opinions in guiding health-related decisions. However, his premises are very specific, referring only to two contradictory articles. These premises do not necessitate that there is something wrong with the experts’ advice in the articles. The articles could focus on coffee’s effects in differing amounts, different groups of people, different aspects of health, or use different data. Unless we know that the articles are discussing the same health issue using the same data, there isn’t much support for the author’s conclusion.
6.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
The argument takes ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███████
The argument does not take this for granted - rather, it states that there are reports about health risks related to coffee. Stating that other sources said something is different than assuming it.
b
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ █████ ███████
The argument doesn’t assume that anyone always wants to consider expert opinions in health-related decisions; instead, it questions the reliability of these experts as one factor for these decisions. This argument also doesn’t exclude the possibility of other sources of guidance.
c
The argument fails ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████
Expert opinions outside of health would be irrelevant to this argument. Our author only ever mentions health-related decisions and expert opinions related to these, not any other areas.
d
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████
This answer choice contradicts the author’s conclusion. Our author thinks that expert opinions about health are untrustworthy, and does not address expert opinions about any other areas. Therefore, this answer choice does not align at all with the argument, much less the flaw.
e
The argument fails ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████
Our author never gave details about the content of the articles. If coffee is beneficial to heart health but harmful to kidney health, the articles are not contradictory at all, and if the articles are not contradictory, our author’s argument is unsupported.