Self-study
Many vaccines create immunity to viral diseases by introducing a certain portion of the disease-causing virus's outer coating into the body. ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████████ █████ █ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ████ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██████ █████████ █ ███ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ █ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████
Summarize Argument
Doctors claim that they can create a vaccine providing permanent immunity to hepatitis E. This is because a suitable portion of the virus behind hepatitis E has been isolated, which is necessary for creating a vaccine.
Notable Assumptions
The doctors assume that meeting a necessary condition--isolating a suitable portion of the virus--is sufficient to allow them to create a vaccine providing permanent immunity. This assumes that there are no other necessary conditions that might not have been met, like having the right technology to produce the vaccine. The doctors also assume that meeting the conditions for a vaccine that creates immunity will allow them to produce a vaccine creating "permanent" immunity.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Most of the ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ █ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ █████
This weakens the argument. If people who contract hepatitis E have already been exposed to the whole virus, not just a single part of it, they should have antibodies that recognize the virus. Since they are able to contract the disease again, they are clearly not permanently immune to it. This suggests that the vaccine, which just works by exposing people to part of the virus, will also not make them permanenly immune.
b
Some laboratory animals ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████
Irrelevant. The doctors never make claims about different strains of hepatitis. The conclusion strictly deals with exposure to hepatitis E and immunity to the same disease, not different varieties of it.
c
Researchers developed a ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███
This gives us an example of another hepatitis vaccine successfully being developed from isolated viruses. This might very weakly support the doctors’ claim, though we still don't know if all the necessary conditions for a hepatitis E vaccine have been met. But this doesn't weaken their claim.
d
The virus that ██████ █████████ █ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████
Irrelevant. Knowing how widespread the virus is doesn't tell us whether a vaccine can be produced from the isolated virus.
e
Many children who ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ █████████
This just tells us that exposure to certain viruses does in fact produce permanent immunity. This might slightly strengthen the doctors’ argument, but certainly doesn't weaken it.