Self-study
Physician: Conclusion Hatha yoga is a powerful tool for helping people quit smoking. ██ █ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ █ ████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██████ ████ █ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that hatha yoga can help people quit smoking.
Why does the author believe this?
Because in a clinical trial, people who practiced hatha yoga for 75 min. per week & got individual counseling reduced their smoking as much as did the people who went to traditional self-help groups once a week and had individual counseling.
(In other words, yoga + counseling was = in effectiveness to self-help group + counseling.)
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that hatha yoga played some role in helping people reduce their smoking. This overlooks the possibility that counseling could have accounted entirely for the observed effects.
The author also assumes that the self-help group played some role in helping people reduce their smoking. If this weren’t true, then counseling could have accounted entirely for the observed effects in the “self-help + counseling” group, which would then raise the possibility that counseling accounted entirely for the observed effects in the “yoga + counseling” group, too.
19.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███████
a
The individual counseling ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████████
Not necessary, because it’s acceptable for counseling to have helped people quit smoking, as long as it isn’t the only reason people quit smoking. The author can believe that both yoga and counseling helped people quit smoking.
b
Most smokers are ████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████
Not necessary, because even if it were not true, hatha yoga can still be a powerful tool for quitting smoking, as demonstrated by the clinical trial. The author’s argument doesn’t concern the practicality of using hatha yoga or the access to hatha yoga.
c
Traditional self-help groups ███ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████
Necessary, because if it weren’t true — if traditional self-help groups are NOT powerful tools for helping people quit smoking — then that raises the possibility that counseling accounted entirely for why people quit smoking. If this is the case, then we’d have no reason to think hatha yoga must have played a role in helping people quit smoking in the yoga + counseling group.
d
People who practice █████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ █ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███████████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns hatha yoga’s impact on smoking. Whether hatha yoga causes physical damage is irrelevant to whether it helps people quit smoking.
e
Other forms of ████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████
Not necessary, because the author never makes any claims that relate to other kinds of yoga.