Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S2 · Q5 Seasonal allergy symptoms are the

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Seasonal allergy symptoms are the immune system’s response to pollen in the air.

Information

causal (response to)

Pollen in >> Seasonal allergy the air symptoms

causal (it can trigger)

Large amounts of inflamm. allergy pollen inhaled >> response >> symptoms

causal (effective strategy)

Staying indoors on >> minimize dry/windy days allergy symptoms

Evaluate

There's a lot of causal stuff going on here. When it's allergy season, there's more pollen in the air. When large amounts of pollen are inhaled, it triggers allergy symptoms.

To avoid being triggered in this way, one can stay in indoors on dry, windy days.

We can infer a Flip the Causal Difference-Maker type idea:

Goal

Let's stay flexible, guard against answers that are Too Strong / Out of Scope, and pick the most provable answer.

5.

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

  1. Medicines that minimize seasonal allergy

    Too Strong: prevent

    First of all, this makes zero common sense: a medicine that prevents you from inhaling something? Medicines don't have the power to select what you do or don't breathe. If medicine prevented people from inhaling large amounts of pollen, then it would be totally effective as a way to avoid allergy symptoms. Since we're told that medicine can minimize symptoms but a more effective strategy is staying inside, we don't have any grounds to think that medicine keeps the pollen from ever entering your body.

    0% picked this

  2. Most types of pollen do

    Too Strong: most

    We don't know anything about any different types of pollen, so we have no means to say that anything is true of more than 50% of pollen types.

    0% picked this

  3. Correct

    People who stay indoors on

    Why this is right

    This sounds like the Flip the Causal Difference-Maker inference we predicted. We were told that inhaling large amounts of pollen triggers allergy symptoms. And we were told that staying indoors is a good way to avoid allergy symptoms. Thus, we can infer that staying indoors is a good way to avoid inhaling large amounts of pollen. It would be like saying, "When Bob uses the computer in his office late at night, he tends to spend too much money via online shopping. One effective way we can cut down on wasteful online shopping is to shut the door to his office in the evening." The implication is that "if he shuts the door to his office, he won't end up using his computer late at night". If X causes Y, and Z is a good way to avoid Y, then Z is a good way to avoid X.

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

    99% picked this

  4. People who take medicines that

    Too Strong: tend to

    We don't know anything when it comes to people who take meds for their allergies, other than that some of them have their symptoms minimized by taking such meds. We can't say that on more than 50% of dry, windy days during allergy season, people who take allergy meds stay indoors. In fact the passage told us that it's often 'impractical" to try to stay indoors all day, so we have a reason to think that people aren't tending to do this.

    1% picked this

  5. People who experience seasonal allergy

    Out of Scope: air filters

    We never talked about "air filters" at all, so we can't just totally speculate on something for which we have no information.

    0% picked this

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