Self-paced
Medical researcher: Support A new screening test detects certain polyps at such an early stage that it is generally unclear whether the polyps are malignant. ███ ███ ████ ████ █ █████ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████████
Summary
The author concludes that the screening test can prompt operations that aren’t medically necessary. The reasoning is that while the screening test can detect polyps, it typically cannot tell whether they are malignant. But doctors usually still have the polyps removed, resulting in some non-malignant polyps being removed.
Notable Assumptions
An assumption is that removing polyps that turn out to be non-malignant isn’t medically necessary. We know that removing polyps is a dangerous process and that some polyps turn out to be non-malignant. But we don’t know what makes something medically necessary. It might be that removing the non-malignant polyps is itself medically necessary — maybe even the non-malignant polyps can be harmful.
13.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ████████ █████████
a
A surgical operation ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████
The argument is about whether a procedure is medically necessary, not whether it is ethical.
b
Surgical removal of ████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████████
This is needed to bridge the premises to the conclusion. We know that removing polyps is dangerous and that some polyps end up being non-malignant — but we need information about what is considered medically necessary to properly reach the conclusion.
c
If the new █████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████████
The argument is that the test prompts medically unnecessary operations — it’s not about what should happen to the test. (C) doesn’t help bridge from the premises to the argument.
d
A polyp detected ██ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████
(D) is talking about whether an operation should happen, whereas the argument is talking about whether the operation is medically necessary. And if (D) is false, it doesn’t destroy the argument. In fact, it might support the idea that not all polyps need to be removed.
e
The screening test ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ████ ████████ ██████████
This isn’t particularly helpful. (E) tells us when a test is medically useful, but it doesn’t tell us what polyps, specifically, require treatment. Additionally, (E) is talking about being “medically useful” while the argument is talking about being “medically necessary”.