Self-paced courses
It is proposed to allow the sale, without prescription, of a medication that physicians currently prescribe to treat the common ear inflammation called "swimmer's ear." The principal objection is that most people lack the expertise for proper self-diagnosis and might not seek medical help for more serious conditions in the mistaken belief that they have swimmer's ear. ███ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █ ███████ █████████████ ████████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that most people can diagnose swimmer’s ear in themselves without ever needing to consult a physician. As support for this conclusion, the author cites a recent study where 84% of a sample of 1,000 people who believed that they had swimmer’s ear made an accurate diagnosis. The author also notes that this 84% accurate diagnosis rate is slightly higher than doctors’ accuracy.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that a high rate of successful self diagnosis supports the idea that people never have to see a doctor for swimmer’s ear; we don’t know that the people in the study had never seen a doctor for swimmer’s ear.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████████
a
Cases in which █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████
The argument is concerned with whether or not doctors are required for accurate diagnosis of swimmer’s ear. The argument is not concerned with severity of infections, so this information does not weaken the argument.
b
Most of those ███ █████████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████
(B) provides information about the 16% who made an incorrect self-diagnosis of swimmer’s ear. The argument is about the high rate of accurate self-diagnosis, so this information does not weaken the argument.
c
Most of the ██████ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ███ █ █████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████
This information attacks the argument’s key assumption that, because of the high rate of accurate self-diagnosis, most people can diagnose themselves without ever seeing a doctor. (C) says that previous visits to a doctor may have informed these accurate self-diagnoses.
d
Physicians who specialize ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████████
This does not change the fact that self-diagnoses are more accurate than doctors’ diagnoses in general. The key support for the argument is that self-diagnoses are highly accurate. (D) does not weaken the argument that most people can self diagnose without ever seeing a doctor.
e
For many people ███ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████████ █████████████
The argument is concerned with diagnosis, not treatment, of swimmer’s ear.