Self-study
Support A recent epidemiological study found that businesspeople who travel internationally on business are much more likely to suffer from chronic insomnia than are businesspeople who do not travel on business. █████████████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ █████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that increased stress causes more insomnia in businesspeople who travel relative to those who don’t. This is because travelling exposes you to stressors that you wouldn’t have at home.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there isn’t some other factor that makes travelling businesspeople more likely to have insomnia. In other words, the author assumes that stress is the important factor here, and not something else—maybe people who travel for business have more demanding jobs, which makes them more prone to insomnia.
11.
Which one of the following ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
Most international travel ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. Most business travel occurring between countries with contiguous borders doesn’t tell us about how similar those countries are culturally and climate-wise. We would have to make several assumptions for this to have any impact.
b
Some businesspeople who ██████ ███████████████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████
This does not affect the argument. It could be that people enjoy the experience but still feel the stresses described. Also, the argument claims travelling businesspeople are more likely to have insomnia—the author isn’t arguing that all of them do.
c
Businesspeople who already ██████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████████ ███ ██ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ ████ █████ █████████ ████ ███████ █████████████ ███████
This strengthens the argument by addressing a potential alternative explanation for the phenomenon: that businesspeople who already have insomnia are more likely to travel than businesspeople who don’t have insomnia. This would mean the stress has nothing to do with it.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
d
Experiencing dramatic changes ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. (D) says people who already have insomnia may benefit from the stresses described. This is outside the scope of the causal mechanism described in the stimulus, which is that the stresses cause insomnia in the first place.
e
Some businesspeople who ████ ████████ ███████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. We don’t know if these ailments include insomnia, which is what we’re concerned with. Also, the stimulus only discusses stress as the cause of insomnia for travelling businesspeople—other people can have insomnia for other reasons.