Self-study
Support If an activity significantly reduces chronic lower back pain, doctors should be prepared to discuss the merits of that activity with patients who ask about it. █ ██████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █ ████████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████
Summary
The author concludes that doctors who treat patients with chronic lower back pain should be prepared to discuss the merits of yoga.
Why does the author believe this?
Because if an activity significantly reduces chronic lower back pain, doctors should be prepared to discuss the merits of that activity.
A recent study found that both practicing yoga and taking stetching classes with a physical therapist lead to equal reductions in lower back pain.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that taking stretching classes with a physical therapist (and practicing yoga) significantly reduces chronic lower back pain. This is why the author thinks the conditional premise concerning when doctors should be prepared to discuss the merits of an activity is triggered.
12.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
There are no ██████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ █ ████████ ██████████
Not necessary, because the author did not conclude that either yoga or stretching classes were the MOST effective at reducing back pain.
b
Taking stretching classes ████ █ ████████ █████████ █████████████ ███████ ███████ █████ ████ █████
Necessary, because stretching classes and yoga had “equal reductions in chronic lower back pain.” So if (B) were not true — if taking stretching classes does NOT significantly reduce chronic lower back pain — then that implies yoga also does not have that effect. In which case we’d have no reason to conclude that doctors should be prepared to discuss the merits of yoga.
c
Few treatment options ███ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██████████
Not necessary, because whether there are many other treatments available has no bearing on whether doctors should be prepared to discuss the merits of yoga. We know that if an activity greatly reduces chronic lower back pain, doctors should be prepared to discuss it. That rule applies no matter the number of other treatments available.
d
No previous studies ████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █ ████████ ██████████
Not necessary, because even if there have been some studies that have compared yoga and stretching classes before, that doesn’t change the results of the study mentioned in the argument and the kinds of conclusions we can draw from that study.
e
Many doctors treating ████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █ ████████ ██████████
Not necessary, because whether many doctors currently discuss the merits of stretching classes has no bearing on whether doctors SHOULD be prepared to discuss the merits of stretching or yoga.