Self-paced
A society’s infant mortality rate is an accepted indicator of that society’s general health status. ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████
Stimulus Summary
The stimulus doesn't strictly contain an argument—it just states some claims, one of which we're asked to support. A good starting point is to understand those claims, which discuss infant mortality and health in the US. We learn:
(1) infant mortality rates are generally accepted to indicate general health status;
(2) the infant mortality rate in the US has been decreasing, even though it's still pretty bad in some local areas;
(3) this overall decrease still doesn't mean babies are necessarily healthier than they were in the past, when the rate was higher.
Objective: Strengthen a Claim
Initially, this looks like a stimulus for an RRE question: there's no argument, just some facts which seem to contradict each other. But instead of resolving anything, we're asked to strengthen the claim that the decreasing infant mortality rate may not indicate an improvement in infant health.
Since there's no argument, we want to find an answer choice that offers any support for this claim. And we're still constrained by the rest of the stimulus. So we can actually approach this much like we would an RRE question: by looking for an answer to explain how this can be true despite our other facts.
17.
Which one of the following ████████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
The figure for ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ███████████
(A) is a trap answer that tricks us into focusing on the
Much like overall infant mortality, average infant health isn't concerned with local deficiencies. We would expect both statistics to reflect the overall national situation. How, then, can decreasing national infant mortality not indicate increasing average infant health? (A) still doesn't explain how this could be the case, so it doesn't strengthen the claim about infant health.
b
Low birth weight ██ █ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████
Low birth weight sounds like an infant health issue. But has this statistic changed over time? Does it indicate a stronger or weaker connection between infant mortality and infant health? We don't know. (B) doesn't give us enough information to strengthen the claim that lower infant mortality may not indicate better infant health.
c
The United States ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████ █████████ █████████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████████████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██████
(C) explains how infant mortality might be detached from infant health, thus strengthening the claim that a decrease in the former may not indicate an increase in the latter. Instead, infant mortality might be declining because the US is getting better at keeping unhealthy babies alive.
d
In eleven states ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████
Like (A), (D) tries to draw our attention to the red herring of local statistics—it's just less subtle about it. Firstly, we already know that overall infant mortality has been declining. Putting specific numbers to it doesn't change that fact. Secondly, what about all the other states? (D) doesn't actually give us much information, and it definitely doesn't explain why infant health may not be improving.
e
Babies who do ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ █ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ███████
Without knowing more about the quality of caregiving in the US, (E) doesn't help us at all. We don't know how likely American babies are to encounter this problem, nor do we know if it's related at all to infant mortality. (E) doesn't support the claim that infant health may not be improving.