Public health expert: Until recently

Answer choices

1. A

   Premise12% picked this

   A medicine that kills one variety of disease-causing microorganism can cause the evolution of

   This matches the 2nd sentence which is a factual premise.

   12%
2. B

   Unstated3% picked this

   A patient who contracts a disease caused by microorganisms cannot be effectively cured

   This claim looks nothing like the final sentence, and it's saying a brand new idea, so it's unlikely to be the conclusion.

   3%
3. C

   Correct71% picked this

   There is good reason to make a particular change to public

   Why this is right

   This also does not bear any resemblance to the last sentence, other than the words "public health policy". This is an unstated idea, so it's not likely to be the conclusion. But it is something the author clearly believes. On a first pass, we should eliminate this as an Unstated Necessary Assumption, or as "some other position we can infer the author holds". It certainly is not at all tempting until we run out of options. Once we see that no other answer comes close to paraphrasing the final sentence, we're left with this incredibly atypical correct answer. The author's final sentence is saying, "a better (more rational) public health strategy exists, in which we place more emphasis on informing people about minimizing transmission of certain diseases". So the author definitely thinks that there is good reason to make the particular change of shifting this emphasis. Why LSAC chose to call this unstated, vague restatement of the author's argument "the conclusion", is a mystery to us all. But it's a reminder that we're always hunting for best available, not necessarily "correct".

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

   71%
4. D

   Unstated / Extreme: no one will ever4% picked this

   No one who is fully informed about the diseases caused by microorganisms will ever fall

   This claim looks nothing like the final sentence, and it's saying a brand new idea, so it can't be the conclusion. And that brand new idea happens to be an insanely extreme claim that totally goes against common sense.

   4%
5. E

   Out of Scope11% picked this

   Some previous approaches to public health policy ignored the fact that disease-causing microorganisms reproduce at

   Out of Scope: ignored Unrelated to Goal This doesn't sound anything like the final sentence, which is advocating a new public health strategy. This would be a premise for that idea. Why should we switch to a new public health strategy? because, the previous approach didn't take into account how the rapid reproduction rate of microorganisms leads to variants that are immune to our medicines.

   11%