Self-study
Editorial: Support If current trends continue, obesity will soon be the leading cause of preventable illness in our country. ███ █ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ██████████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that doctors need more training in how to treat obesity.
Why?
Because if current trends continue, obesity will soon be the leading cause of preventable illness in the country.
But 45% of doctors in a recent survey said they didn’t feel qualified to advise patients about weight issues.
Notable Assumptions
The conclusion asserts that doctors “need more training” for something. But the premises don’t tell us how to determine what doctors need or what they should give given. We want a principle that gets us from the premises to a conclusion that doctors need or should be given something. For example:
If many doctors don’t feel comfortable advising patients concerning a subject that’s a major cause of preventable illness, then doctors need to get more training in that subject.
8.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████
a
Doctors should not ██ ███████ ██ █████ █ █████████ ██████ █████ █████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████
Leads to the wrong conclusion. (A) is designed for us to conclude that doctors should NOT be trained to treat something. But we’re trying to conclude that doctors need more training.
b
Changes in the ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
Leads to the wrong conclusion. (B) tells us what’s necessary to make a change in how doctors are trained. That allows us to conclude that there should NOT be a change in how doctors are trained. But we’re trying to prove that there SHOULD be a change. We want doctors to have more training.
c
Doctors do more ████ ████ ████ █████ █████ █████████ █████████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ███████████ █████
(C) concerns the comparative benefit of treating unpreventable illnesses and counseling for preventable illnesses. But we’re trying to prove that doctors should have more training related to a preventable illness. Unpreventable illnesses are irrelevant to the argument.
d
Doctors should focus █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████████████
Leads to the wrong conclusion. (D) allows us to conclude something about where doctors should focus their efforts. But we’re trying to conclude that doctors need more training in something. What doctors should focus on doesn’t imply anything about the need for more training.
e
Doctors should be ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████
Helps get from the premises to the conclusion. We know from a premise that obesity is a cause of preventable illness. We also know that many doctors don’t feel qualified to advise on obesity. It’s reasonable to take this as evidence that many doctors don’t have enough training in treating obesity. If, as (E) says, doctors should get enough training to treat causes of preventable illness, then that supports the claim that doctors should get more training in treating obesity.