The cause of the epidemic

Answer choices

1. A

   Lowers Plausibility of Ebola6% picked this

   Victims of the Ebola virus experience many symptoms that do not appear in any of the accounts

   If Ebola has some many other telltale symptoms that aren't part of what we know about the epidemic, that weakens the plausibility that this epidemic was Ebola.

   6%
2. B

   Correct71% picked this

   Not all of those who are victims of the Ebola virus are

   Why this is right

   This was almost guaranteed to be the right answer from the "not all". That language is so weak that it's almost never a correct answer on Strengthen / Weaken / Paradox. Since we're looking at an EXCEPT question (i.e. we're going to pick something that would be an incorrect answer on Weaken), we would be attracted to this answer. This just says there has been at least one person in history who had Ebola but not hiccups. Okay, cool. Did the author need it to be that 100% of people with Ebola get hiccups? No, 99% is plenty. We can say that "loss of taste and smell" isn't associated with any disease except COVID-19, but that doesn't mean we're saying that every single person who gets COVID-19 loses their taste and smell.

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

   71%
3. C

   Lowers Plausibility of Ebola7% picked this

   The Ebola virus's host animals did not live in Athens at the time of

   If the animals that Ebola comes from didn't live in 430 B.C. Athens, then that makes the Ebola hypothesis way less likely.

   7%
4. D

   Lowers Plausibility of Ebola9% picked this

   The Ebola virus is much more contagious than the disease that caused the Athenian epidemic was

   Just like choice (A), this gives a mismatch between what we'd expect from an Ebola outbreak and what we know of the Athenian epidemic. We'd expect to hear that the illness was very, very contagious, whereas what we know about the Athenian epidemic does not sound like they were dealing with an illness that was that contagious.

   9%
5. E

   Lowers Plausibility of Ebola7% picked this

   The epidemics known to have been caused by the Ebola virus are usually shorter-lived than

   Just like choices (A) and (D), this gives a mismatch between what we'd expect from an Ebola outbreak and what we know of the Athenian epidemic. We'd expect to hear that an Ebola epidemic didn't last super long, but what we've heard about the Athenian epidemic is that it did last a long time.

   7%