Self-study
Some health officials are concerned about the current sustained increase in reported deaths from alcohol-related conditions, attributing this increase to a rise in alcoholism. ████ █████ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ █ █████ ████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████████████████
Phenonmenon-Hypothesis: Competing Explanations
Phenomenon: There has been an increase in reported alcohol-related deaths. Why? How do we explain this? Some health officials hypothesize that this is caused by a rise in alcoholism. But the author argues for a different hypothesis. He argues that these officials aren't considering that alcoholism used to be seen as a moral failing, but is now viewed as a disease. Therefore, he concludes that the increase in reported deaths is due to physicians being more likely to identify these deaths as alcohol-related.
Notable Assumptions
The stimulus hypothesizes that the reason for the increase in reported alcohol-related deaths isn't an increase in alcoholism, but rather an increase in reporting deaths as alcohol-related, due to different attitudes toward alcoholism. This relies on a significant assumption: that somehow, the change in attitudes toward alcoholism (which is the primary premise for the author's argument) made physicians more likely to identify deaths as alcohol-related. In other words, when alcoholism was viewed as a moral failing, physicians were less likely to identify deaths as alcohol-related, compared to now, when alcoholism is viewed as a disease.
We're looking for an answer choice that strengthens the argument. A strong candidate would be one that states or otherwise supports the assumption we've identified.
16.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████
a
The frequent use ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████████ █████ █████
This doesn't strengthen. Remember that the argument states that changes in attitudes toward alcoholism have caused physicians to report more deaths as alcohol-related. Nothing in this argument relates to, or is strengthened by, any information about alcohol use by young people being reported as occurring at earlier ages — a fact that could be true whether alcoholism is viewed as a moral failing or as a disease.
b
In some places ███ ██████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ █████ ████████
This doesn't strengthen. It doesn't matter whether "some places and times" have viewed susceptibility to any kind of disease as a moral failing. We know that in the context of this argument, alcoholism is already no longer viewed as a moral failing, but as a disease. This answer choice doesn't strengthen the idea that it was this change in attitudes that caused physicians to report more deaths as alcohol-related.
c
More physicians now ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████████
This is correct. It explains why, exactly, the change in attitudes toward alcoholism might cause physicians to be more likely to identify deaths as alcohol-related. This answer choice suggests that viewing alcohol as a disease leads more physicians to be trained to recognize the physical signs of this disease, which in turn supports the idea that they will more accurately identify deaths as alcohol-related, where they wouldn't in the past.
d
Even though alcoholism ██ ██████████ ██ ██ █ ████████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████
This doesn't strengthen. We're not interested in how physicians generally treat alcoholism. We want to know why viewing alcoholism as a disease would make physicians more likely to identify deaths as alcohol-related, compared to when alcoholism was viewed as a moral failing.
e
Many health officials ███ ███ ███████████
This is irrelevant. It might be used as an ad hominem attack against the health officials' argument. But it doesn't strengthen the logic of the main argument, which is focused on the judgments of physicians, not of health officials.