Logical Reasoning

PT117 · S2 · Q19 It is unlikely that the world

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It is unlikely that the world will ever be free of disease.

Conclusion (unlikely = opinion)

It's unlikely the world will ever be free of disease.

Evidence

Most diseases are caused by prolific microorganisms whose response to the pressure of medicine is predictable: they evolve immunities to those medicines while maintaining their power to infect or kill humans.

Evaluate

Whenever we do Main Conclusion or Role, we remind ourselves that the vast majority of the time the main conclusion will be found in the First Sentence or as some Pivot / Rebuttal in the middle.

That helps us to hear the first sentence as the main conclusion, in realtime. We're listening for whether it sounds like an opinion from the author. When we see that it's a prediction about the future (not attributed to anyone else), we know it's an opinion from our author.

If she goes on to defend / support this claim, then we know it was the conclusion.

She does. The final two claims explain how our action of treating disease with medicine just spawns newly-evolved forms of the disease that elude our medicines. Thus, we'll unlikely ever be free of disease.

Goal

We're being asked about the first sentence, which is our Main Conclusion, so let's look for something that means Main Conclusion.

19.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the argument by the claim that it is unlikely that the world will ever be free of disease?

  1. It is a conclusion that

    Bad Premise Match

    This starts off correct, but the premise wasn't saying that microorganisms are too numerous to ever be fully defeated. It was saying that microorganisms will keep evolving new forms that elude our medicine.

    3% picked this

  2. Correct

    It is a conclusion for

    Why this is right

    This correctly calls the first claim the conclusion and the description of the evidence is on point. The last two claims discuss the response that microorganisms have when we try to eliminate them with medicine.

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

    71% picked this

  3. It is a premise offered

    Wrong Role

    It's not a premise. It's the main conclusion. The 2nd and 3rd claim combine to support it.

    3% picked this

  4. It is a generalization used

    Wrong Role

    Our claim was the main conclusion. A main conclusion isn't used to do anything. Everything else in an argument is used to arrive at the main conclusion.

    1% picked this

  5. It is a conclusion that

    Bad Premise Match

    This starts off correct, but the premise wasn't saying that most microorganisms are immune to medicine. It was saying that microorganisms will keep evolving new forms that elude our medicine.

    22% picked this

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