Self-study
Newspaper article: Conclusion People who take vitamin C supplements tend to be healthier than average. ████ ███ █████ ██ █ █████ █████████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ █ ███ █████ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ █ ███████████ ████ █ █████████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that people who take vitamin C supplements tend to be healthier than average. This is because a study showed that people who regularly consume high doses of vitamin C supplements have a much lower than average risk of heart disease.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that taking vitamin C supplements doesn’t cause any harm to overall health that could outweigh the benefits of lower risk of heart disease. (Maybe vitamin C supplements lead to a higher risk of kidney disease? If so, we can’t conclude that people who take vitamin C supplements are healthier than average.)
20.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
Vitamin C taken ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ █ █████ ██ █████
The conclusion is about vitamin C supplements, and the study is also about vitamin C supplements. Whether vitamin C in food has different effects from vitamin C in supplements doesn’t affect the argument.
b
The reduction in ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ████████
The author never suggested eating vitamin C was the best way to reduce heart disease. There can be other dietary changes that reduce heart disease as much or more than vitamin C; this is consistent with the argument.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
c
Taking both vitamin █ ███████████ ███ ███████ █ ███████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████
We know there’s a correlation between eating high doses of vitamin C supplements and having a lower risk of heart disease. The fact a combination of vitamins might reduce heart disease more doesn’t change the fact that there’s evidence vitamin C reduces heart disease risk.
d
High doses of ███████ █ ███████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████████ █████████
This points out a harmful effect of vitamin C supplements. This raises the possibility that this harmful effect might outweigh decreased risk of heart disease when it comes evaluating vitamin C supplements’ impact on overall health.
e
Taking vitamin C ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████
This is an additional benefit of vitamin C supplements. To weaken the argument, we want to point out a harm from vitamin C supplements.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).