Self-study
Long-term and short-term relaxation training are two common forms of treatment for individuals experiencing problematic levels of anxiety. ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ██████ ███ ███████████████████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The author's conclusion is in the last statement, marked by "thus": most people don’t need the long-term relaxation training, which is more expensive than short-term training. The stated premise is that both short-term and long-term training result in anxiety decreasing to normal levels within the short-term timeframe.
Notable Assumptions
Based only on the premise that both forms of training reduce anxiety to normal levels in the short-term timeframe, the author concludes the extra cost of long-term training isn't necessary for most people -- in other words, short-term training is enough for most people. This assumes that long-term and short-term anxiety training don't use significantly different techniques focusing on patients with different needs, and that long-term training doesn't provide additional benefits besides the initial drop in anxiety to normal levels. It seems likely that without long-term treatment, some people's anxiety would go back up after dropping to a normal level. The author assumes this is not the case.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
A decrease in ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ █████████████
The conclusion of the argument is a comparison specifically between short-term and long-term relaxation training. Knowing that sometimes anxiety can decrease even without treatment doesn't weaken the claim that short-term training is sufficient for most people who end up seeking treatment. It might be tempting to think that this answer choice weakens by making any form of treatment seem less necessary. But first, this wouldn't weaken the specific claim about short-term vs. long-term treatment, and second, even if it were true that anxiety symptoms often decrease without treatment, that wouldn't mean that treatment is not beneficial or can't accelerate recovery. So this answer choice doesn't affect the argument.
b
Short-term relaxation training █████████ ██ █ ████ ███████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████ █████████ ██ █ ████ ███████████ █████████████
All this answer choice tells us is that there are some cases where short-term training might be more expensive than long-term training. But the conclusion is about what sort of training makes more sense for most people in most cases: both types of training provide the same benefits, and short-term training is cheaper, so short-term training makes more sense for most people. Knowing about potential exceptions, where it make sense to choose long-term training, doesn't weaken this claim.
c
Recipients of long-term ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████
This points out an important difference between short-term and long-term training. Even if both forms of training lead to the same short-term decreases in anxiety, long-term training helps prevent recurring anxiety. This weakens the conclusion. Many people seeking anxiety treatment probably want a long-term solution, in which case the extra expense of long-term treatment might make more sense.
d
The fact that ██ ██████████ ██████ ████ █ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ ████████
It might be tempting to think that this weakens the argument by making both forms of training seem like a placebo. But making two things both seem less useful doesn't effectively weaken a comparative claim that one is preferable to the other, like we have in the conclusion here. Also, notice that it's not even clear that this answer choice describes any of the patients in the stimulus. We don't know that any of the patients receiving short- or long-term treatment necessarily think their treatment will work. It's possible they don't, and it works anyway. So this doesn't affect the argument.
e
Short-term relaxation training ████████ ███ ████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ █████████████████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████████ █████████
If anything, this strengthens the claim that short-term training is preferable to long-term training, since short-term training teaches more techniques. But notice that the premises tell us both forms of training reduce anxiety to the same degree in the short-term timeframe, so it's not clear that having more techniques makes short-term training more effective. In any case, this doesn't weaken.