Logical Reasoning

PT138 · S2 · Q10 People who are allergic to cats

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People who are allergic to cats are actually allergic to certain proteins found in the animals' skin secretions and saliva; which particular proteins are responsible, however, varies from allergy sufferer to allergy sufferer.

Given

Sentence 1 before the semi colon tell us that people with cat allergies aren't allergic to cats, per se, but to specific proteins found in their skin secretions (gross) and their saliva. After the semi colon, we're told that the specific protein responsible for the allergy varies from one person to another. Sentence 2 starts with the evidence indicator word "since" which is unusual, though not unheard of, for a Most Supported question. Typically, these are non-argument stimuli but occasionally they are arguments. When they are, the right answer tends to feel a lot like a Necessary Assumption answer, so we'll keep that in mind when we try to make a prediction. The evidence claim is that ALL cats shed skin and spread saliva (also gross), from which an equally strong conclusion is drawn: there's NO such thing as a cat that can't provoke an allergy. Sentence two ends with a concession following the concession indicator word "although" - it's common for a cat to cause a reaction for some people who suffer from cat allergies but not for others.

Evaluate

There are a lot of overlapping ideas in these two long, multi-clause sentences: cats, proteins, allergies, allergy sufferers. A correct answer could deal with any of these ideas.

Circling back to that idea of the Necessary Assumption style of prediction, we might also consider the relationship between the claim "all cats shed and spread" and the conclusion that That argument seems to assume that all cats have proteins in their skin secretions and saliva that are capable of causing an allergic reaction. Sentence 1 before the colon establishes that "certain proteins" are the source of these reactions, but it didn't go so far as to say "all proteins" of these types are capable of doing so, so that would be a Necessary Assumption style prediction.

All that being said, Most Supported questions are not the most predictable, so read the answers with an open mind. Beware of claims that are stronger than the stimulus, and get rid of answers that introduce a new idea. For this question type, new ideas are Out of Scope.

10.

Which one of the following statements is most strongly supported by the information above?

  1. Any particular individual will be

    Trap

    Too Strong / Too Broad: any particular individual We're told that it's common for someone with a cat allergy to be allergic to some cats but not others. But not everyone has a cat allergy! The fact that this answer applies to everyone is grounds for dismissal. Another more subtle reason to dismiss this answer is "breeds of cats." We talke about individual cats but not about their different breeds.

    4% picked this

  2. No cat is capable of

    Too Strong: no

    We're told it is common for a given cat to cause an allergic reaction in some but not all people who are allergic to cats. But that still leaves open the possibility that some cat out there has a perfect storm of allergy-inducing skin and spit proteins and could wreak allergic havoc on every cat-allergy sufferer.

    14% picked this

  3. Correct

    Not all cats are identical

    Why this is right

    The first thing that should make us like this answer is the "not all ___ are ___ " format. This style of claim is VERY easy to support. It only takes 1 cat that's different from the rest to prove that they're not all identical. So, that's a strong start to the answer. Do we have reason to believe that not all cats have identical proteins? Sure. The proteins are what cause the allergies, and different proteins aggravate different people, and it's common for a cat that triggers one person's allergies not to trigger somebody else's. One possible explanation for this set of curious facts is that different cats have different proteins. What makes this question so hard is that this isn't the only possible explanation. It's also possible that all cats have the same proteins and the different reactions are 100% explained by the difference among the people who are allergic. The fact that this answer would be wrong on a Must Be True question makes lots of people eliminate it. But since this is a Most Supported question, that's not grounds for dismissal. An answer that doesn't have to be true might still end up being the best available choice, and in this case, it is.

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

    61% picked this

  4. The allergic reactions of some

    Out of Scope: intensity / other allergies

    The intensity of the allergic reactions are not discussed, and neither are people who suffer from allergies other than cat allergies: those are both out of scope ideas. This answer is also making a comparison that isn't justified by the facts: an Unsupported Comparison, one of the most common Most Supported wrong answer types.

    7% picked this

  5. There is no way to

    Too Strong / Speculative

    Too Strong / Speculative: no way to predict We are told that different proteins cause different people to have allergic reactions, and that some cats provoke some people but not others. But does that really support the claim that there are zero ways to predict whether a certain cat will make a certain person react? That's too speculative. We don't have any info about allergy prediction. Maybe certain breeds of cat tend to have certain proteins, and maybe certain allergy symptoms are the result of particular proteins. If we knew that Mancoons have protein X and that protein X causes itchy eyes but not sneezing, and we know that Greg gets itchy eyes around cats but doesn't sneeze, we could reasonably predict that Greg would be allergic to Max the Mancoon.

    14% picked this

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