Self-study
Health officials now recommend that people reduce their intake of foods that are high in cholesterol, such as red meat. ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████████ ███ ███████████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ███ █ ███ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that many people are ignoring the health recommendation to cut back on high-cholesterol foods like red meat. She supports this by noting that steak restaurants are thriving even though the restaurant industry is generally declining.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author implies that people who eat at steak restaurants are ignoring the health recommendation to avoid high-cholesterol foods like red meat. This argument is vulnerable to criticism because it overlooks a few key possibilities. Perhaps many people eat at steak restaurants on special occasions and avoid high-cholesterol foods at all other times. Or perhaps many people order something other than steak at restaurants specializing in steak.
In other words, the author draws a conclusion about steak restaurant patrons’ overall behavior based on one potentially unrepresentative example.
18.
The argument is vulnerable to █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It neglects to ████████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████
It doesn’t matter how steak restaurants attract customers. Like (C), the author doesn’t need to explain why steak restaurants are flourishing. Instead, she needs to explain why the flourishing of these restaurants proves that many people are ignoring the health recommendation.
b
It assumes without ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████████
If anything, the author assumes that people who eat steak do need to follow the advice to reduce high-cholesterol food. People with low cholesterol might be intentionally eating steak, but (B) doesn’t make this attack. Either way, they would still be ignoring the recommendation.
c
It presupposes that ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████
The author doesn’t assume that beef prices dropped or that this caused steak restaurants to be popular. Like (A), she doesn't need to explain why these restaurants are thriving. Instead, she needs to explain how their success shows that many people are ignoring the health advice.
d
It mistakes the ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ █ ██████ █████████
The author never assumes that the decline in beef consumption caused the decline in the restaurant industry or vice versa.
e
It fails to ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████
The author draws a conclusion about overall eating habits from one instance of eating high-cholesterol food. She assumes that since people go to steak restaurants, they’re ignoring the advice to avoid high-cholesterol food. But they might follow that advice in their other meals.