Self-study
Support A recent study of 6,403 people showed that those treated with the drug pravastatin, one of the effects of which is to reduce cholesterol, had about one-third fewer nonfatal heart attacks and one-third fewer deaths from coronary disease than did those not taking the drug. ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that lowering cholesterol reduces heart disease risk. She supports this with a study showing that people treated with pravastatin, which lowers cholesterol, had fewer heart attacks and heart disease deaths than people not taking the drug. She also notes that people with heart disease often have higher cholesterol levels.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of mistaking correlation for causation. The author shows that high cholesterol and heart disease are correlated and assumes that high cholesterol causes heart disease risk.
Also, she thinks that pravastatin further proves this causation, assuming that it reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol. But the drug could reduce heart disease risk in another way, and simply lower cholesterol as a side effect.
24.
The argument's reasoning is flawed ███████ ███ ████████
a
neglects the possibility ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███████
Pravastatin may have severe side effects, but this wouldn’t affect whether it reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol.
b
fails to consider ████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████
The author assumes that pravastatin reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol. She uses this as evidence that lowering cholesterol reduces heart disease risk. But the drug could reduce the risk in another way, with cholesterol reduction just being a side effect.
c
relies on past █████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████
The author does use past findings about the link between high cholesterol and heart disease. But she also uses the data found in the specific study on pravastatin.
d
draws a conclusion █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██████
The author does draw a conclusion regarding the effects of lowering cholesterol on heart disease, but this isn’t a flaw in her argument. Just because the study on pravastatin was used as evidence doesn’t mean that her conclusion has to be about pravastatin.
e
fails to consider ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████████
It doesn’t matter what percentage of the general population take pravastatin. We know that enough people take it to make up a sizable study on its effects, which is all that matters here.