Researchers compared the brains

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: roughly 35%2% picked this

   Roughly 35 percent of people with abnormal brain subplates will eventually

   This is a classic trap answer in spot (A) on an Inference question. When they think that they have provoked a guess out of us (they provoked me to guess that this was heading towards the idea that bad subplate —leads to—> some cases of schizophrenia), they love to put a broken version of that in spot (A). It’s too strong and literal to say that 35% of people with bad subplates will eventually get schizophrenia. We’d have more support for saying 35% of people with schizophrenia got from bad subplates. But we'd rather soften it even more, because we're being pretty speculative about drawing this causal inference to begin with.

   2%
2. B

   Out of Scope: promising treatment5% picked this

   A promising treatment in some cases of schizophrenia is repair of the damaged connections between the different

   This is not only assuming that schizophrenia is caused by damaged connections in the brain but also assuming that a treatment exists that can reverse it. We don’t have any support for any sort of treatment that not exists.

   5%
3. C

   Before vs. After 2nd Trimester12% picked this

   Some people developed schizophrenia because of damage to the brain subplate after the

   This is lovably soft and fits the causal gist of the paragraph, but we were told that the damage occurred prior to the 2nd fetal trimester (i.e. during the 1st trimester, the first three months of being pregnant). This answer says the damage occurred after the 2nd fetal trimester (i.e. during the 3rd trimester, the last three months of being pregnant).

   12%
4. D

   Too Strong2% picked this

   Schizophrenia is determined by genetic

   Too Strong: determined by Out of Scope: genetic factors We’re only getting a picture here that schizophrenia (in 35% of cases) might be caused by damage to a part of the brain in a 1st trimester fetus. We have no idea if this damage was caused by genetic factors, and it would also be too strong to assume that all cases of schizophrenia are caused by this same subplate damage.

   2%
5. E

   Correct79% picked this

   There may be a cause of schizophrenia that

   Why this is right

   This is lovably weak (there may be a cause). This gets at the same sentiment that (A) and (C) were, but it avoids saying anything too strong, and it doesn’t mess up the 2nd trimester thing. The passage suggests that some of these schizophrenics had damage to their subplate during the 1st trimester (which predates birth, of course).

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

   79%