Self-study
Physician: In comparing our country with two other countries of roughly the same population size, I found that Support even though we face the same dietary, bacterial, and stress-related causes of ulcers as they do, Support prescriptions for ulcer medicines in all socioeconomic strata are much rarer here than in those two countries. ████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ █████████████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The physician hypothesizes that her country has significantly fewer stomach ulcers per capita than two other countries. This is because prescriptions for ulcer medications are rarer in her country than the other countries, despite exposure to the same causes of ulcers.
Notable Assumptions
The physician assumes that the only reason ulcer medication prescriptions in her country are rarer than in the two other countries is because people in her country have fewer ulcers. This means she doesn’t believe that her country has some cultural or economic reason that makes ulcer medications rarer, or that the other two countries have some cultural or economic reason that makes ulcer medications more common or more frequently prescribed.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
The two countries ████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████
Irrelevant. It would be useful to know the rates of ulcers in the physician's country compared to the other two countries. But knowing the rates of those two countries on their own, or compared to each other, doesn't help strengthen the argument..
b
The people of ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ █ ████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ █████
This weakens the argument. It provides an alternate explanation for why the physician's country tends to prescribe less ulcer medication. People in the physician's country might still get ulcers, but ignore them rather than seeking medication.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
c
Several other countries ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████
Irrelevant. We're not interested in other countries beyond the three discussed here. The physician is drawing a comparison only between her country and the two other countries.
d
A person in ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
This strengthens the argument. It rules out the possibility that people in the physician's country might still get as many ulcers as people in other countries, but are just less likely to seek medication for cultural or economic reasons.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
e
The physician's country ███ █ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
With more information, this could either strengthen or weaken the physician’s argument. If the other countries tended to over-report prescriptions, then the physician's argument would be weakened. If they tended to under-report, the argument would be strengthened. On its own, though, this answer choice doesn't currently strengthen the argument.