Self-study
Doctor: Medication to reduce blood pressure often has unhealthy side effects. ████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████
Summary
Taking blood pressure medication may have bad side effects, and some lifestyle changes reduce blood pressure just as effectively as medication does. Those lifestyles changes are therefore a healthier way to reduce blood pressure.
Notable Assumptions
The argument’s support only states that the lifestyle changes are effective for reducing blood pressure before concluding that those lifestyle changes are healthier than medication (because of the medication’s unhealthy side effects). It does not, however, state anything about potential side effects of the lifestyle changes. There is no easy way to compare which is healthier. There’s therefore some missing assumption telling us that the lifestyle changes have fewer unhealthy side effects than the medication.
21.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ █████████
a
Other than medication, ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██████
The fact that lifestyle changes are the only alternative to medication doesn’t help get to the claim that they’re healthier than medication - it doesn’t say anything about how healthy they are!
b
If it is █████████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████
This doesn’t provide any information supporting the conclusion that the lifestyle change is healthier. Instead, it only states a condition that would follow from the fact that the lifestyle change is healthier.
c
The side effects, ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████
This assumption gives us the missing piece in the argument. If negated - if the side effects of the lifestyle changes were more unhealthy than taking medication - then the conclusion that lifestyle changes are healthier would be undermined.
d
If an alternative ██ ██████████ ████████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████████
Too strong. The assumption doesn’t need to state that an alternative to medication is always healthier than medication, instead only that in this case the lifestyle changes are healthier than this specific medication (because of a lack of unhealthy side effects).
e
If two different ███████ ██ ████████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███████
This assumption still doesn’t provide any information about what side effects the lifestyle changes have, and therefore wouldn’t provide support to the conclusion that lifestyle changes are healthier. There is also no reason to believe lifestyle changes are more effective than medication.