Self-study
Based on data collected from policyholders, life insurance companies have developed tables that list standard weight ranges for various heights. █████████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ █████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████████ █████ ████████
Summary
The argument concludes that if people modified their weight, based on their height, to fall within a standard range, they would live longer. This is supported by the claim that, according to insurance companies, people within the standard weight range for their height live longer.
Notable Assumptions
The argument uses a correlation as support to conclude that a causal relationship exists. This requires assuming that there aren’t other factors, underlying weight, that impact life expectancy and aren’t affected by a change in weight.
The argument also requires assuming that, even if a change in weight can improve life expectancy, making that change wouldn’t also involve damage to people’s health that would decrease their life expectancy.
8.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ███████
a
Some people would ██ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ███████ ████ █████████████
People’s willingness to modify their weight is irrelevant—the argument is only claiming that some people could improve their life expectancy by modifying their weight, not that they necessarily will.
b
Life insurance companies ████████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ██████
The intention that led the insurance companies to create these tables is irrelevant to their actual usefulness to guide people’s changes in weight.
c
The tables include ████ ████████ ████ █████████████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███████
If anything, the data would be a more reliable indicator of how weight impacts lifespan if accidental deaths were excluded, so an assumption that accidental deaths were included is not necessary.
d
Holders of life █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████
The argument merely claims that people within the standard weight range lived longer than people outside that range. This relationship could still be true even if the general population has overall shorter life expectancies, so this is not necessary.
e
People's efforts to ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █ █████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████ ████ █████████████
If we were to negate this—if people’s weight-modification efforts were so harmful that their lifespans decreased—that could offset any increase in lifespan. That would deeply undermine the argument, making this assumption necessary.