Self-paced
It is widely believed that eating chocolate can cause acne. ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ █ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author thinks it’s likely that stress causes both acne and chocolate-eating, rather than chocolate consumption causing acne. To support this, they offer two pieces of evidence. First, stress hormones can cause acne. Second, chocolate enjoyers eat more chocolate when stressed.
In reaching the conclusion that stress is probably the cause of both acne and chocolate-eating, notice that the author doesn't disagree the correlation between chocolate and acne observed by people susceptible to acne. The author accepts this correlation, but puts forward an alternative causal explanation which is supported by new evidence about stress.
7.
The argument employs which one ██ ███ █████████ █████████████ ███████████
a
It cites counterevidence ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███████████
The author challenges the position that chocolate causes acne, which is supported by an observed correlation between chocolate-eating and acne outbreaks. However, the author doesn't question this evidence. The author never says that chocolate doesn't actually correlate with acne, but just that this correlation can be explained by stress.
b
It provides additional ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███████████
The author challenges the position that chocolate causes acne, which is supported by an observed correlation between chocolate-eating and acne outbreaks. The author accepts this correlation, but reinterprets the causal link to suggest it starts with stress. To support this reinterpretation, the author offers additional evidence about stress.
c
It invokes the ████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████████
The author challenges the position that chocolate causes acne, which is supported by an observed correlation between chocolate-eating and acne outbreaks. However, the author doesn't dismiss the relevance of this evidence. In fact, the author relies on the same correlation in the argument—it's just linked to a new cause.
d
It demonstrates that ███ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ████ ███████ ████████████████ ██████
The author challenges the position that chocolate causes acne. However, the author doesn't bring up well-established facts that conflict with this position. Instead, the author cites recent research—which still doesn't directly conflict with the challenged position, but just suggests a new interpretation.
e
It provides counterexamples ██ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████
The commonly held position is that chocolate causes acne, which is supported by an observed correlation where chocolate-eating precedes acne outbreaks. However, the order of causes and effects isn't at issue in the argument. In fact, the author suggests a new cause, stress, which precedes its claimed effects of chocolate-eating and acne.
It's difficult to imagine a counterexample where a cause does not precede its effect. That would suggest a perfectly simultaneous cause and effect, or a cause that would have reach back in time to create an effect that happened first. The author doesn't raise any such examples.