Self-study
Advertisement: Support Anyone who exercises knows from firsthand experience that exercise leads to better performance of such physical organs as the heart and the lungs, as well as to improvement in muscle tone. ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ █ ████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████
Argument Summary
The advertisement starts by saying that "anyone who exercises" knows from experience how exercise improves the performance of certain "physical organs." The advertisement then suggests that it's possible for your actions to improve the performance of your brain, too, because the brain is also a physical organ. The advertisement concludes that readers should subscribe to Stimulus magazine because it "exercises your brain."
Analysis: Method of Reasoning
This is a Method of Reasoning-style question. The advertisement starts by appealing to a commonly known fact, that exercise improves the performance of physical organs like the heart and lungs. Then it suggests that since the brain is a physical organ, its performance can also benefit from exercise (this is a logical jump, by the way: we're never told that all physical organs benefit from exercise). The advertisement concludes that readers should subscribe to this magazine because it somehow "exercises" the brain. We could point out the flaws in this argument, but for this question, our job is just to follow its structure: appealing to a common experience, then pivoting to a specific claim which is used as the basis for encouraging people to take a certain action.
6.
The advertisement employs which one ██ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███████████
a
It cites experimental ████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████████████
Incorrect. The advertisement never cites any experimental evidence.
b
It ridicules people ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████
Incorrect. The advertisement never talks about people who do not subscribe to Stimulus, or talk about their beliefs.
c
It explains the ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ████
Incorrect. If you picked (C), you might have thought the second sentence explains the "process" by which Stimulus improves the brain's functioning, but notice that there isn't any explanation of a process by which our actions improve the performance of the brain — this sentence just says that they can, given that exercise benefits other physical organs. For this answer choice to be correct, we would need an explanation specifically of how Stimulus "exercises" the brain, and we don't get that.
d
It supports its ██████████████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████
Incorrect. The advertisement doesn't provide a careful analysis of the concept of exercise. If anything, it seems to be using the term "exercise" very loosely, to be able to apply it both to physical exercise and to Stimulus "exercising" the brain in some way.
e
It implies that ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████
Correct. The advertisement assumes that since the brain is a physical organ like the heart and lungs, then it can benefit from "exercise" the same way they do.