Logical Reasoning

PT156 · S2 · Q16 A recent study found that small rats

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A recent study found that small rats were approximately twice as likely, and large rats only half as likely, to suffer from heart problems than were rats of average size.

Compared to Normal Rats, How Come ...

small rats are 2x as likely to have heart problems? and large rats are 1/2 as likely to have heart problems?

Goal

Since it's Paradox EXCEPT, there will be four answers that help explain this pattern.

Overall, the bigger the rat, the less likely the heart problem.

You could picture the continuum of risk as: SMALL NORMAL LARGE 200% 100% 50%

What is it about smaller rats that's bad for the heart? What is it about bigger rats that's good for the heart?

16.

Each of the following, if true, contributes to an explanation of the correlation given above between size and heart disease in rats except:

  1. Correct

    Small rats are more likely

    Why this is right

    This is dealing with fatal diseases unrelated to heart problems (they actually strike earlier than heart problems do), so it has no power to tell us why small rats have a higher rate of heart problems.

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

    76% picked this

  2. Small rats generally have smaller

    Helps Explain

    The smaller the rat, the smaller the blood vessels, and thus the more likely the blood vessels will be clogged with fatty deposits. It's common sense that clogged arteries are a common form of heart problem, and that having a "clogged vessel" in general is a bad thing. The heart is the muscle that pumps blood, so we can connect "bad blood vessels" to "more heart problems".

    1% picked this

  3. The larger a rat is,

    Helps Explain

    The larger the rat, the less stressful its existence. It's common sense that stress is hard on the heart, that people sometimes have heart attacks when they're undergoing lots of stress. So it makes sense that less stress leads to less heart problems.

    9% picked this

  4. In addition to being the

    Helps Explain

    There is a common cause of being small and having heart problems: malnutrition. Rats that suffer from malnutrition will be both smaller and have weaker hearts, and that can explain why the rate of heart problems amount smaller rates is higher (they have weaker hearts!)

    9% picked this

  5. Although large rats are no

    Helps Explain

    Weirdly this brags at the start that it will be unhelpful in distinguishing larger rats from normal size. But this is saying large rats have better cardiovascular conditioning than small rats, so it makes sense why large rats have a lower rate of heart problems than small rats. This doesn't explain why large rats have fewer heart problems than average rats, but because it explained something it did still contribute to an explanation of the correlation between size and heart disease.

    6% picked this

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