Self-paced
Jones fell unconscious on the job and it was suspected that he had swallowed a certain chemical, so he was rushed to the local hospital's emergency room. ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ █ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ █████████
Summarize Argument
The physician concludes that Jones did not swallow the chemical in question. As support, the physician references the following relationship:
Jones swallowed the chemical→mineral deficiency in blood→ skin inflammation
Jones’s skin was not inflamed, so the physician said that he did not swallow the chemical.
Notable Assumptions
The physician assumes that there wouldn’t be any delay in the reactions. If there is any delay in the effects of either the chemical or the mineral deficiency, it could be the case that an insufficient amount of time had passed for Jones’s skin to become inflamed. If this is the case, Jones’s clear skin would be because not enough time had passed, not because he didn’t swallow the chemical.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ███████████
a
Jones did not ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████
The argument is based on the effects of consuming the chemical; these effects would occur regardless of whether Jones knew about the dangers.
b
Jones had suffered ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████
We care about skin inflammation because it could be an indicator of whether or not Jones consumed the chemical; for the sake of the argument, we don’t care about skin inflammation that occurred independent of Jones’s potential consumption of the chemical.
c
It takes 48 █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████
This weakens the argument because it gives an alternate explanation for Jones’s clear skin. Jones’s skin could be clear because 48 hours hadn’t yet passed, not because he didn’t consume the chemical. Not enough time would have passed for the physician to make her conclusion.
d
Jones often worked ████ ███ █████████
The argument is about whether or not Jones consumed the chemical in this specific instance; Jones’s history of working with the chemical is not relevant to the physician’s argument.
e
Deficiency in minerals █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████
The physician’s argument is based on the fact that Jones’s skin is NOT inflamed, so other potential causes of skin inflammation are not relevant here.