M: It is almost impossible to find a person between the ages of 85 and 90 who primarily uses the left hand.
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Neither speaker makes a full argument; each one just reports a factual observation.
M says that very few 85 to 90-year-olds primarily use their left hand. We can reasonably take this to mean that almost all of them use their right hands.
Q says that when current 85 to 90-year-olds were children, children were punished for using their left hands and forced to use their right hands. This offers a possible explanation for M's observation.
Q’s response serves to counter ███ ███ ██ █ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
Being born right-handed ███████ █ ████████ ██████████
Could this hypothesis be supported by M's evidence? Yes. M observes an overwhelming preference for right-handedness among a certain demographic of people, which could be explained by an evolutionary benefit to right-handedness.
Would this hypothesis be countered by Q's response? Yes. Q suggests an alternative to any kind of evolutionary hypothesis: instead, the phenomenon is a learned behavior resulting from social pressure. That undermines the idea that right-handedness is innate in everyone M observed.
Because (A) could be supported by M's observation, but is ultimately undermined by Q's response, it matches what we need from the correct answer. Q's response would counter M's attempt to use the evidence about 85 to 90-year-olds in support of (A).
Societal attitudes toward ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████
Could this hypothesis be supported by M's evidence? No. M doesn't observe anything relating to the societal attitudes that might explain handedness preferences; only Q does that. And even if M did talk about societal attitudes, all the people M observes have the same preference, not different ones.
Because M couldn't use the evidence about 85 to 90-year-olds to support this hypothesis, (B) is incorrect.
Forcing a person ██ ██████ ████ █ █████████ ████ ██ █████████
Could this hypothesis be supported by M's evidence? No. M doesn't address the idea of forcing anyone to switch from their preferred hand; only Q does that. And neither speaker discusses whether doing so could harm anyone.
Because M couldn't use the evidence about 85 to 90-year-olds to support this hypothesis, (C) is incorrect.
Handedness is a ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████████████ ███ ██████ ██████████
Could this hypothesis be supported by M's evidence? No. Because M never discusses social pressures, it wouldn't make sense to draw this conclusion from M's observation. Instead, M's observation seems to imply that right-handedness is innately more likely.
Even if we said this hypothesis was supported by M's evidence, it also wouldn't be countered by Q's response. Q points out the role of punishment in handedness, which supports the conclusion that social pressures are involved in addition to genetics.
Because M couldn't use the evidence about 85 to 90-year-olds to support this hypothesis, and because the hypothesis isn't countered by Q's response, (D) is incorrect.
Physical habits learned ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████
Could this hypothesis be supported by M's evidence? No. Because M never discusses when these habits were learned, it wouldn't make sense to draw this conclusion from M's observation. Based on just M's evidence, it could equally be the case that all these elderly folks switched to right-handedness much more recently.
Even if we said this hypothesis was supported by M's evidence, it also wouldn't be countered by Q's response. In fact, Q's response provides more support for (E) than M's evidence does. Q is the one who shows a link between handedness habits learned in school and old-age preferences.
Because M couldn't use the evidence about 85 to 90-year-olds to support this hypothesis, and because the hypothesis isn't countered by Q's response, (E) is incorrect.
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