Logical Reasoning

PT129 · S3 · Q9 Physician: In comparing our country

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Physician: In comparing our country with two other countries of roughly the same population size, I found that even though we face the same dietary, bacterial, and stress-related causes of ulcers as they do, prescriptions for ulcer medicines in all socioeconomic strata are much rarer here than in those two countries.

Evidence

In comparing our country with two other countries of roughly the same population size, I found that even though we face the same dietary, bacterial, and stress-related causes of ulcers as they do, prescriptions for ulcer medicines in all socioeconomic strata are much rarer here than in those two countries.

Conclusion

It's clear that we suffer significantly fewer ulcers, per capita, than they do.

Evaluate

This explanation is only one of several possible. An alternative explanation could be that although people in the physician’s country suffer from ulcers at the same rate as the other two countries, they are less likely to be prescribed ulcer medications. Maybe their access to physicians is more limited or maybe physicians in that country are more concerned about long-term side effects of ulcer medications.

9.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the physician's argument?

  1. The two countries that were

    Irrelevant Comparison

    This doesn’t provide an explanation of the discrepancy and instead provides more detail about the discrepancy itself.

    4% picked this

  2. The people of the physician's

    Weakens

    This provides an alternative explanation for the discrepancy and so undermines the physician’s argument.

    5% picked this

  3. Several other countries not covered

    Out of Scope - Other Group

    Other countries are not relevant to explaining the discrepancy observed in the physician’s argument.

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    A person in the physician's

    Why this is right

    This makes a very strong connection between "whether or not you have a prescription" and "whether or not you have an ulcer". The argument's reasoning was "If prescriptions here are rarer, then ulcers here are rarer" This answer makes us feel good about using "number of prescriptions" as a metric for "number of patients with ulcers". In all the countries being studied, the relationship between having a prescription and having an ulcer is identical.

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

    79% picked this

  5. The physician's country has a

    Weaker Impact

    This does sort of undermine the alternate explanation that prescriptions are rarer in this country due to under-reporting, so it strengthens somewhat. But this doesn't have as much strengthening impact as (D), which firmly connects "number of prescriptions" to "number of ulcer patients".

    10% picked this

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