Self-study
Advertisement: Support Researchers studied a group of people trying to lose weight and discovered that those in the group who lost the most weight got more calories from protein than from carbohydrates and ate their biggest meal early in the day. ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The ad concludes that anyone who follows the ad’s diet will definitely (”be sure to”) lose weight. This is based on a study of people trying to lose weight, which showed that those who lost the most weight got more calories from protein than from carbs and ate the biggest meal early in the day. The ad’s diet involves more calories from protein than from carbs and has breakfast as the biggest meal of the day.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that the ad’s diet might not help everyone lose weight. Although we know that the people who lost the most weight in the study followed a similar diet, that doesn’t mean everyone who followed that diet in the study lost weight. For example, maybe only 50% who followed that diet lost weight; those who lost weight might have lost a lot, but that doesn’t mean everyone on the diet lost weight.
24.
The reasoning in the advertisement ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████
a
eating foods that ██████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ █████████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ███████
The diet described involved a majority of calories from protein rather than from carbs. Whether a different kind of diet helps people “feel fuller” has no clear impact on whether the ad’s diet will help people lose weight.
b
a few of ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ████████ ████ █████████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ██ █████
We know the group who “lost the most weight” got more calories from protein than from carbs. That doesn’t exclude the possibility that some people with a different diet also lost a lot of weight. They just didn’t lose the most weight.
c
the people in ███ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ █████████████
(C) suggests that exercise is another factor in weight loss. The author never assumed otherwise. The ad is merely arguing that following the ad’s diet will cause weight loss. Whether exercise also leads to weight loss doesn’t affect whether the diet leads to weight loss.
d
some people in ███ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███
If this possibility is true, that means not everyone on the high-protein + big meal early diet lost weight. This shows why we can’t conclude that “anyone” on the ad’s diet will “be sure to” lose weight.
e
people who eat █████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███
(E) describes people on a different kind of diet that isn’t what the ad describes. What’s true about those people has no affect on what will happen to people following the ad’s diet.