PT140.S3.Q21

PrepTest 140 - Section 3 - Question 21

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Conclusion Prolonged exposure to sulfur fumes permanently damages one's sense of smell. ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███████████████ █████████ ███ █ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ █ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author concludes that prolonged exposure to sulfur fumes permanently damages a person’s sense of smell. This is based on a study comparing 100 workers from sulfur-emitting factoris and 100 workers who didn’t work in sulfur-emitting factories. On average, the sulfur-emitting factory workers identified fewer chemically-reproduced scents than the other group did.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that the only explanation for why the sulfur-emitting factory workers identified fewer scents than the other group did is damage to sense of smell due to sulfur fumes. The author also assumes that the sulfur-emitting factory workers experienced “prolonged” exposure to sulfuar and that any potential damage to sense of smell they suffered is permanent.

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21.

Each of the following, if █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████

a

The chemicals used ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███████

(A) should affect the both groups equally, so it’s not an alternate hypothesis. Also, a close resemblance to the natural scent could strengthen by defending from an objection that the scents were too different to reliably test sense of smell.

Failed alternate explanation
50%
b

The subjects in ███ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████ ████ ███████ █████

This shows that the test wasn’t investigating permanent damage. If the sulfur group was tested in the sulfur-emitting factory, whatever effect sulfur had on the group could have been due to the contemporaneous effects of sulfur. We’d want the test to be done outside the factory.

Alternate explanation
20%
c

Most members of ███ ███████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███████

This could provide an alternate explanation for why the control group was able to identify more scents than the sulfur group. Prior experience with studies identifying scents could have improved their ability to identify scents in such tests.

Alternate explanation
8%
d

Every sulfur-emitting factory ████ ███████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████

This could provide an alternate explanation for why the sulfur-emitting factory group identified fewer scents. Maybe any damage to sense of smell was due to a different fume besides sulfur.

Alternate explanation
18%
e

Because of the ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██████

This could provide an alternate explanation for why the sulfur-emitting factory group identified fewer scents. Less familiarity with the natural scents they were supposed to identify could have accounted for their worse performance on the test.

Alternate explanation
5%

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