Self-study
A recent study suggests that consuming three glasses of wine daily substantially decreases the risk of stroke. ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ █ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
In response to a study suggesting that drinking 3 glasses of wine daily reduces stroke risk, critics conclude that this level of drinking would not benefit overall health. As support, the critics say that binge drinkers (who drink once a week or less, but drink 3+ drinks when they do) are those most likely to drink 3+ glasses in one day, and binge drinkers are more likely to die from heart attacks. According to the critics, this heart attack risk offsets any decrease in the risk of stroke that may result from drinking 3 glasses daily.
Identify and Describe Flaw
There is a mismatch between the critics’ evidence and conclusion. Their evidence concerns binge drinkers, but their conclusion addresses daily drinkers. Since binge drinkers, by definition, don’t drink 3 glasses daily, evidence about binge drinking risks doesn’t support a conclusion about daily drinking.
20.
The critics' argument is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
inappropriately attributes the ████████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ █ ███
(A) encapsulates the mismatch between the evidence and the conclusion. We know there is an increased risk of heart attacks for binge drinkers, but because binge drinkers and daily drinkers are different groups, we don’t anything about the risk of heart attacks for daily drinkers.
b
confuses the risk ██ ██████ ███████████████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ █████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The heath risks aren’t confused; the critics reference the risk of alcohol-induced heart attacks in an attempt to demonstrate the negative net effect of consuming 3+ glasses daily.
c
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ █████
The critics’ argument says that binge drinkers are those most likely to drink three glasses of wine in one day. Their argument isn’t about other alcoholic beverages.
d
fails to address ████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████
This answer is descriptively inaccurate. The argument does acknowledge the reduction in the risk of stroke that comes with drinking three glasses of wine daily; the critics just think that the reduction in stroke risk is outweighed by the increased risk of heart attacks.
e
overlooks the difference ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████
While the argument does overlook this difference, this difference is not relevant to the argument. Drinking three glasses of wine per day decreases the risk of stroke––it doesn’t matter how severe the strokes are. The argument is concerned with stroke risk, not stroke severity.