Doctor: Medication to reduce blood pressure

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: only3% picked this

   Other than medication, the only way to reduce blood pressure is by making lifestyle changes such as exercising

   Just because the author only mentioned these three ways doesn’t mean he’s assuming that they are the only three ways. I might want to argue that a Corolla is better than a Civic or a Maxima; in doing so, I don’t have to assume that those are the only three cars there are.

   3%
2. B

   Illegal Reversal11% picked this

   If it is healthier to rely on a lifestyle change than on medication to reduce blood pressure, then that lifestyle change reduces blood pressure

   When we see conditional answers, compare them to the core. Beware reversals/negations. The author’s premise to conclusion move is, “Since lifestyle reduces as much as medication does, it is healthier to rely on lifestyle”. This answer choice is a reversal of that idea.

   11%
3. C

   Correct74% picked this

   The side effects, if any, of exercising more and avoiding fatty foods in order to reduce blood pressure are less unhealthy than those of

   Why this is right

   We know that meds have side effects, but in order to judge that as a relative disadvantage compared to diet/exercise, we need to know that diet/exercise do not have side effects that are just as bad or worse. If we negated this answer, we would get the strong objection of “The side of effects of diet/exercise are at least as bad as the side effects of meds!”

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

   74%
4. D

   Too Strong: always11% picked this

   If an alternative to medication relieves a medical condition just as effectively as medication does, then it is always healthier to rely on that

   This general rule does seem to apply to the author’s thinking in this specific case. But how do we know whether she would apply this general rule to all cases. We know the author thinks that it is sometimes true that an equally effective alternative to medication is thus the healthier option. But she hasn’t committed herself to believing that this would always be true for any case.

   11%
5. E

   Bad Premise Match1% picked this

   If two different methods of treating a medical condition have similar side effects, then it is healthier to rely

   When we see conditional answers, compare them to the core. Did the argument go from “We know that diet/exercise has similar side effects to meds (but diet/exercise is more effective), thus the healthier option is diet/exercise?” Not at all. We have no idea whether diet/exercise has similar side effects. The argument said, “If two different methods have similar effectiveness and one of them has bad side effects, then it is healthier to rely on the other method.”

   1%