The interstitial nucleus, a subregion

Answer choices

1. A

   Unclear Impact7% picked this

   No female cats have been known to contract disease X, which is a subtype

   Females have large interstitial nuclei (the same size as the interstitial nucleus of the male cats who got disease X). Since the females don't get X even though they have big interstitial nuclei, it somewhat seems to weaken the plausibility of the author's idea that big interstitial nuclei in male cats is what enables them to get disease X. So, this feels a little like Effect without Cause, because it's giving Big Interstitial + No Disease X. But it's not really giving "big interstitial" because female cats naturally have a larger interstitial nucleus. For the male cats, a nucleus this big was abnormal and thus more likely to be associated with a disease. The text also tells us that disease X is "a disease affecting no more than 0.05% of male cats". It's not clear whether that means it only affects male cats or whether it could affect both sexes of cats.

   7%
2. B

   No Impact7% picked this

   Many male cats who contract disease X also contract disease Z, the cause of

   Since we know nothing about disease Z, this fact doesn't help us evaluate anything about whether disease X in male cats is causally connected to the size of their interstitial nucleus.

   7%
3. C

   Strengthens9% picked this

   The interstitial nuclei of female cats who contract disease X are larger than those of female cats who

   This adds plausibility to the Author's Causal Explanation, that the bigger interstitial nucleus in these male cats is what caused them to contract disease X.

   9%
4. D

   Unclear Impact30% picked this

   Of 1,000 autopsies on male cats who did not contract disease X, 5 revealed interstitial nuclei larger than those

   This may feel like a Cause without Effect plausibility weakener, since it's talking about male cats who had the bigger nuclei but didn't contract disease X. However, it's not clear how much we should care about this fact. The male cats who died of X had interstitial nuclei that were as large as a female cat's. The male cats in this answer choice had "larger than average" interstitial nuclei, but we don't know if they were as large as those of a female cat. Also, this would only weaken the argument if we thought the author was saying that "male cats with larger nuclei will get disease X". The author is only concluding that "male cats with larger nuclei can get disease X".

   30%
5. E

   Correct48% picked this

   The hypothalamus is known not to be causally linked to disease Y, and disease X is a

   Why this is right

   This badly hurts the plausibility of the Author's Explanation. It essentially denies the possibility of a causal mechanism by which the interstitial nucleus could have influence over disease X. But to make this idea harder to understand, the answer refers to higher categories. Hypothalamus is a bigger category that includes the subregion of the interstitial nucleus. Disease Y is a bigger category that includes the subtype of Disease X. If hypothalamus is known not be causally linked to disease Y, then it seems pretty unlikely that the interstitial nucleus has any causal link to disease X.

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   48%