Marcia: Not all vegetarian diets

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct81% picked this

   is directed toward disproving a claim that Marcia did

   Why this is right

   Marcia said that some veggie diets can avoid nutritional deficiency, and Theodora accused her of saying that all veggie diets cannot lead to nutritional deficiency.

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

   81%
2. B

   Not a Flaw6% picked this

   ignores the results of the research cited

   It's true that Theodora doesn't acknowledge the research Marcia mentioned, but that's not part of Theodora's logic problems. Say that you were trying to prove that "X leads to Y" and cited some research supporting that. I am trying to prove that "at least once, X doesn't lead to Y". I don't need to deal with your research to prove my point. I just have to supply a counterexample in which X didn't lead to Y (the research you presented doesn't look like a good source for counterexamples, so my argument wouldn't have any reason to bring it up). Since Theodora is just trying to find a counterexample to the idea that "veggie diets cannot lead to nutritional deficiencies", she wouldn't have any need or motivation to discuss the research Marcia cited.

   6%
3. C

   Too Strong: "none ... unless" Negated Logic5% picked this

   takes for granted that no meat-based industries will collapse unless most

   Theodora poses a hypothetical in which most people become vegetarians and some meat industry jobs are lost. She never commits herself to the extreme assumption that this is the only way the meat industry would ever be harmed. This is just performing an illegal opposite. Our author was saying this: most people go veggie ? some meat jobs collapse And this answer is saying this: ~most people go veggie ? ~some meat jobs collapse

   5%
4. D

   Used Consistently4% picked this

   uses the word "diet" in a nontechnical sense whereas Marcia's argument uses this term in

   In both cases, "diet" is used in the sense of "a person's typical regimen of food". The equivocation in Theodora's argument was not "diet", but the sense of how a diet "leads to" nutritional deficiencies.

   4%
5. E

   Out Of Scope4% picked this

   takes for granted that people losing jobs in meat-based industries would

   Out Of Scope: "fired people become vegetarians" The author doesn't indicate whether she believes that the people who lose these jobs are vegetarians or not to begin with, nor whether they would switch to that diet (if they weren't already on it) when they lost their jobs.

   4%