Self-paced
Support In a transportation company, a certain syndrome often attributed to stress by medical experts afflicts a significantly higher percentage of workers in Department F than in any other department. ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the work done in Department F causes higher stress levels than work done in other departments. This is because workers in Department F are more often afflicted by a syndrome believed to be related to stress.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that workers in Department F are succumbing to the syndrome due to stress, rather than due to some other reason, either related to their work or unrelated. The author also assumes that workers in Department F aren’t tested more frequently for the syndrome, which would explain the discrepancy. Last, the author assumes that Department F isn’t comprised of people who happen to be predisposed towards the syndrome.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Department F has ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
The stimulus discusses the relative rates of the syndrome, so the total numbers of employees in each department aren't important to the argument.
b
Some experts believe ████ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ████ ███████
Even if there can be other causes, are any of those causes likely to arise in Department F? Without that information, this doesn't affect the argument.
c
Many workers who ████████ ████ ██████████ █ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████
This confirms the assumption that Department F isn’t just comprised of vulnerable individuals. This strengthens by supporting the causal connection between Department F and the syndrome.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
It is relatively ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████
We don’t care how common the syndrome is among transportation employees, generally. We’re interested in the relative rates between departments, so this isn't relevant.
e
Job-related stress has ████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ ███████████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████
We need something that differentiates Department F from the rest of the company. This doesn’t do that because it applies to the whole company, so it's irrelevant.