Logical Reasoning

PT106 · S1 · Q11 Sharks have a higher ratio of cartilage

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Sharks have a higher ratio of cartilage mass to body mass than any other organism.

Statements

Superlatives Sharks have a higher ratio of cartilage mass to body mass than any other organism. They have a greater resistance to cancer than any other organism. In the past 20 years, no patient responses to therapy have been more positive than the ones that come from eating shark cartilage.

Causal Shark cartilage has a substance that inhibits tumor growth (by not letting new blood networks grow).

Evaluate

The correct answer on Must Be False usually contradicts a conditional claim or contradicts some Must Be True inference we can make.

There weren't any conditionals here, but there were three very strong statements.

When it comes to cartilage ratio or cancer resistance, Sharks > all other animals

When it comes to therapeutic measures for terminal cancer patients, Eating shark cartilage ≥ all other measures

Note that this one is "greater than or equal to", because saying "no other measure has been more positive" still leaves room for other measures to have been as positive.

Goal

Look for an answer contradicting one of our facts or contradicting a synthesis we could make from the facts.

For example, a correct answer could say, .

11.

If the claims made above are true, then each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

Correct
No organism resists cancer better
Why this is right
The idea that some organisms resist cancer as well as sharks do contradicts the 2nd sentence, which said that "sharks have greater resistance to cancer than any other organism".
Skill tested: Must be False · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
59% picked this
The organism most susceptible to
Out of Scope: most susceptible
We don't have any information on which organism is most susceptible to cancer, so there's no way we could contradict a statement about such an organism.
19% picked this
The substance in shark cartilage
Too Specific: most
We don't have any quantifier that would allow us to speak to the frequency with which the tumor-inhibiting substance in shark cartilage appears in other organisms. Maybe 49% of organisms have it, maybe 51% do. We don't know, so we can't contradict this claim. It might be tempting to think, "well, if most organisms had this same tumor-inhibiting substance, then why would sharks be so special in terms of greater resistance to cancer than any other organism?" It could just be that sharks have more of that substance / higher concentrations. Even though it can be found in most organisms, it can be found in highest abundance within sharks.
13% picked this
In the past 20 years
Compatible
It doesn't go against anything we were told for many types of therapy to yield dramatic improvements. It would only contradict what we were told if some type of therapy yielded a more dramatic improvement than consuming shark cartilage did.
5% picked this
Some organisms have immune systems
Out of Scope: immune efficiency
We never talked about how efficient a shark's immune system is. Just because they are king when it comes to susceptibility to cancer doesn't mean that their immune system is maximally efficient. Since we didn't learn anything about immune efficiency, we can't contradict this claim.
4% picked this

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