Logical Reasoning

PT21 · S2 · Q17 Members of the Amazonian Akabe

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Members of the Amazonian Akabe people commonly take an early-morning drink of a tea made from the leaves of a forest plant.

Curious Fact

Given that these Akabe people greatly enjoy this specific tea, how come they only drink it in small amounts at dawn?

Author's Explanation

The tea is crazy high in caffeine, so if they drank too much they would get shaky, whereas their daily tasks require surefootedness.

Evaluate

Whenever authors are hypothesizing an explanation for a curious fact, we ask the same two questions:

1. could there be an Alternate Explanation for the curious fact? 2. how plausible is the Author's Explanation?

Goal

Since this is a weaken question, the correct answer will either - suggest an Alternate Explanation for why the Akabe people only drink a small amount of this beloved tea at dawn, or - undermine the plausibility of the story that drinking too much of the tea would mess up their ability to be surefooted with their daily tasks.

17.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously calls the anthropologists’ explanation into question?

The drink is full of
No Impact
If anything, this gives more reason to drink lots of this tea every morning, so the fact that the Akabe aren't drinking a lot would almost help strengthen the author's case that it's because they're scared to drink too much.
11% picked this
The Akabe also drink the
No Impact
We're trying to explain / understand their morning-drinking habits. Drinking tea at night has a different set of intangibles, so it wouldn't be too fair to compare. But the fact that this answer doesn't even specify whether the amount they drink in the evening is more / less / equal to what they drink in the morning makes it totally unclear what impact this answer would have.
34% picked this
Correct
The leaves used for the
Why this is right
This provides an Alternate Explanation for why they only drink a small amount in the morning. We could say, "No, author, they aren't keeping themselves to a few sips because they're worried about the caffeine inside. They're worried about the narcotic!" If they chug this tea, they'll be crazy high at work. Possibly hallucinating. :) Narcotic = a drug that affects your psychology, for recreational purposes Soluble = dissolves in a liquid (making it easier for your body to absorb)
Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
47% picked this
Akabe children are introduced to
Strengthens, if anything
Common sense tells us that children don't usually drink caffeine (they have plenty of energy), so this fact is very consistent with the author's hypothesis that this tea would tweak you out. If we had espresso or Jolt cola lying around the house, we would probably water it down before giving it to kids. This doesn't give us an alternate explanation for why the adults only a tiny amount in the morning, nor does it undermine the idea that they merely sip the tea so that they don't get too jittery off the caffeine.
2% picked this
When celebrating, the Akabe drink
No Impact
This is consistent with the author's hypothesis (and certainly doesn't offer an alternate explanation for why they only drink a little in the morning). If they drink a lot at parties, they'll get super jittery from the caffeine (the author would think), but that's not necessarily a problem when celebrating. The author was only thinking that being jittery would be avoided when they need to knock out their daily tasks (i.e work).
6% picked this

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