Self-study
Lobsters and other crustaceans eaten by humans are more likely to contract gill diseases when sewage contaminates their water. █████ █ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that rerouting the sewage is pointless. Why? Because most lobsters are too short-lived to suffer from the gill diseases that rerouting the sewage would prevent.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there is no other worthwhile reason for the sewage to be rerouted. In particular, he assumes that if lobsters are not harmed by sewage-caused gill diseases, then there’s no use in trying to prevent them.
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Contaminants in the ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████
This strengthens the argument. If non-sewage contaminants are equally dangerous, then rerouting the sewage will not protect the lobsters much, if at all.
b
Lobsters, like other ████████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████
This does not say lobsters live only in the open ocean. It’s possible the lobsters caught for human consumption live mainly in industrial harbors.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion. In other words, it feints an attack on the premises or conclusion. If correlation is present, the answer choice is often merely an outlier datapoint, which is actually entirely consistent with the correlation.
c
Lobsters breed as ███████ ██ ███████████████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████
This strengthens the argument by eliminating one possible reason for the sewage to be rerouted.
d
Gill diseases cannot ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████
This is not relevant. There’s no indication the detection of gill diseases from the outside makes lobsters more or less healthy or dangerous.
e
Humans often become ███ ██ █ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████
This is a reason to reroute the sewage. Though lobsters themselves may not suffer from sewage-contaminated water, humans eating them will.