Self-study
After being subjected to clinical tests like those used to evaluate the effectiveness of prescription drugs, Support a popular nonprescription herbal remedy was found to be as effective in treating painful joints as is a certain prescription drug that has been used successfully to treat this condition. ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████
Summary
The manufacturer concludes that chemical agents are unnecessary for the successful treatment of joint pain. He supports this with a test which found that an herbal remedy was as effective in treating joint pain as a prescription drug that successfully treats joint pain.
Missing Connection
The manufacturer concludes that chemical agents aren’t necessary for treating joint pain because his herbal remedy successfully treated joint pain. However, he never establishes that the herbal remedy does not contain chemical agents. In order for his argument to be valid, the manufacturer must assume that the herbal remedy doesn’t contain any chemical agents that treat joint pain.
7.
The test results would provide ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
People are likely ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████████████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████
This may be true, but it doesn’t prove that chemical agents aren’t necessary for treating joint pain. Even if people will switch to using herbal remedies, we still need to know whether the manufacturer’s herbal remedy contains chemical agents that treat joint pain.
b
The herbal remedy ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███████
The herbal remedy was as effective as a prescription drug that successfully treats joint pain. If the herbal remedy doesn’t contain any chemical agents that treat joint pain, then it’s true that chemical agents aren’t necessary for the successful treatment of joint pain.
c
None of the ██████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████
It doesn’t matter whether the test participants had used an herbal remedy before; the test still found that the herbal remedy was as effective as the prescription drug. Regardless, (C) doesn’t establish whether the herbal remedy contains chemical agents.
d
The researchers who ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████
No matter who analyzed the clinical tests, we still don’t know whether the herbal remedy contains chemical agents. If it doesn’t, then the manufacturer’s conclusion follows.
e
The prescription drug ██████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████████
The argument is only addressing whether the prescription drug and the herbal remedy treat joint pain, not whether they eliminate the cause of joint pain. Regardless, (E) fails to establish whether the herbal remedy contains any chemical agents.