Self-study
Press release: Support A comprehensive review evaluating the medical studies done up to the present time has found no reason to think that drinking coffee in normal amounts harms the coffee-drinker's heart. ██ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ █████ █████ █████████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The press release concludes that it’s safe to drink coffee. This is because, according to a review of studies, coffee consumed in normal amounts doesn’t harm heart health.
Notable Assumptions
The press release assumes that coffee drinkers are drinking normal amounts of coffee. The press release also assumes that whatever doesn’t harm heart health is safe—in other words, that coffee does’t have a negative effect on health outside of heart health.
1.
Which one of the following ██████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ █████████
a
The review was ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ █████████
The review didn’t have to study patients—the studies themselves did that. This doesn’t give us any reason to believe that the review’s findings are false or of limited scope.
b
The health of ███ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ █████
Even though coffee-drinking might not affect the heart, health is broader than that. This opens up the possibility that coffee could harm some other aspect of health, thus undermining the press release's conclusion about health overall.
c
Coffee drinkers might ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████
We’re concerned with coffee. The press release isn’t saying that “coffee and cake” is safe; it’s saying coffee is. The safety of other foods isn't relevant.
d
Other beverages besides ██████ █████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████
We’re only concerned with how coffee affects health. It doesn’t matter what other beverages do.
e
Drinking unusually large ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████
This is saying that large amounts of coffee-drinking may be a consequence of stress, which itself harms the heart. But this doesn't suggest that coffee may be bad for health, just that it might correlate with poor health.