Psychiatrist: Breaking any habit is difficult, especially when it involves an addictive substance. ██████ ███ █████ █ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███████████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ████████
People who successfully stop smoking are more motivated by social pressure (an urgent concern) than health concerns. This is because people who break habits are more motivated by urgent concerns than distant ones.
The author assumes that health concerns are not urgent concerns for most people who quit smoking.
The conclusion of the psychiatrist's ████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████
a habit that ████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ █ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. The magnitude of the threat is not relevant to the argument, which is focused on the urgency of a threat.
for most people ███ ████████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████
This strengthens the argument. It provides support for the author’s assumption that health is not a pressing concern for most people when they quit smoking.
some courses of ██████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. (C) says some actions that make health issues worse can make social pressure better. This is not relevant to the argument, which is about what motivates people to stop smoking cigarettes (which we can’t assume is one of the actions described).
most people who ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. The psychiatrist already notes that breaking a habit is difficult, and is more concerned with what motivates someone to try hard enough to succeed in breaking the habit.
everyone who succeeds ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████████
This does not affect our argument, as (E) doesn’t tell us anything about how many people fall into either category. It may strengthen the argument if most people quit because of social pressure. It would weaken it if most people quit because of health concerns.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnostic