Self-study
Support A recently completed study of several hundred subjects, all of approximately the same age, showed that those who exercised regularly during the study were much less likely to die during the study. ████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████ █████ ████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that exercise can increase life span. This is because the subjects in a study who exercised were less likely to die during the study than the subjects who didn’t exercise.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the correlation between exercise and good health wasn't caused by good health causing more exercise, or by a hidden third factor. For example, if people on the verge of dying didn’t exercise given their health condition, then the study wouldn’t indicate anything about the effects of exercise.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
The subjects who ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████
This weakens the author’s argument by bringing in a third factor: diet. Perhaps the people who didn’t die were saved by their diets rather than by exercise.
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).
b
The subjects who ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████
This doesn’t impact the argument without more information. For example, we don't know if the groups actually had different amounts of time available, and if so, why.
c
A large number ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ████████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████
This undermines the author’s argument by indicating that people died because of their preexisting conditions rather than their lack of exercise.
d
Whether or not █ █████ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████
In other words, there was no connection between prior health and exercise. This defends against the possibility that only already-healthy people were exercising, which strengthens.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
A person who █████████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███████
We don’t care what usually motivates people to exercise. We care about why the study showed a difference between people who exercised and people who didn’t exercise.