PT154.S2.Q19

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 3 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6

PASSAGE 2
Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20

PASSAGE 4
Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

PrepTest 154 - Section 2 - Question 19

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. █ ████████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ █████████████ █████ ███ ██ ████ █████ █████ █ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ █ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ █████

Summary

The author concludes that pressure on a certain nerve was causing the patient’s back and leg pain.

Why?

Because a computer scan provided evidence of pressure on that nerve. Pressure can cause inflammation, which can cause pain.

Moreover, if there was nerve inflammation, a cortisone injection would reduce inflammation.

After administering a cortisone injection, the patient experienced reduced pain.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that there’s no other reason the patient could have had reduced pain following the cortisone injection other than the injection’s ability to reduce pressure on the nerve. (This overlooks the possibility that the injection might have helped reduce pain by relieving some other aspect of the patient’s body, such as a different nerve or muscle.)

Analysis by KevinLin

Show answer

19.

Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████

Computerized scans are ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ █████ ██ █████████

Not necessary, because computer scans can still provide some evidence of the cause of pain even if they are not the most accurate.

The cortisone injection ███ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████

Not necessary, because the negation would strengthen the argument. If the injection DID reduce pressure on the inflamed nerve in the patient’s leg, that’s evidence the pressure may have been the cause of the pain.

The pain relief ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████

Necessary, because if it were not true — if the pain relief DID occur merely through the belief that the cortisone would be effective — then that would mean the injection did not actually reduce any inflammation or relieve any pressure. And in that case, we’d have no reason to think that the patient’s improvement following the injection is evidence that the pain was caused by pressure on the nerve.

Only cortisone injections ███ █████ █ █████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████

Not necessary, because even if there are other things in addition to the injection that can reduce inflammation, we still know that the injection was used and that it might have reduced inflammation in this case. The argument’s reasoning only requires that the injection be ONE of the things that can reduce inflammation.

The best treatment ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █ ████ ████ ████████ █████████████

Not necessary, because the course of treatment the patient received can still provide evidence of that nerve pressure caused the pain even if that treatment wasn’t the “best” available.

Difficulty

Question

70% of people who answer get this correct

This is a difficult question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 147

154

75% 162

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Necessary assumption

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

152

159

70%

164

12%

155

151

Question history

You don't have any history with this question.. yet!