Logical Reasoning

PT147 · S4 · Q3 Hospital patients generally have lower

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Hospital patients generally have lower infection rates and require shorter hospital stays if they are housed in private rooms rather than semiprivate rooms.

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

3.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent conflict in the information above?

  1. Many of the doctors who

    No Distinction Opposite (if anything)

    We want a distinction between Woodville and nearby hospitals, and this provides a similarity.

    5% picked this

  2. Most of the nearby hospitals

    Opposite (if anything)

    We want a reason why Woodville is doing better than we'd expect, and being told that it is an older hospital seems more to be a reason why it would do worse than one might expect.

    0% picked this

  3. Infection is more likely to

    Restates Paradox Unrelated to Goal

    This is reinforcing the background claim, explaining why private rooms tend to lead to lower infection rates and shorter hospital stays. It does nothing to explain the surprise, which is why Woodville's semiprivate rooms seem to be doing as well as other hospitals' private rooms.

    1% picked this

  4. Correct

    Woodville's hospital has a policy

    Why this is right

    Answer D is correct.

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

    93% picked this

  5. Woodville's hospital is located in

    Unclear Impact / Thin Ice

    For this to explain the surprise, we'd have to think that being located in the central business district has some common sense connection to lower infection rates or shorter hospital stays, which would definitely be walking on thin ice.

    1% picked this

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