PrepTest 105, Section 2, Question 20
Some people have been promoting a new herbal(88 more words not shown)
Each of the following is(10 more words not shown)
- AEnough of the(14 more words not shown)
- BThe mixture does(16 more words not shown)
- CThe mixture is(14 more words not shown)
- DThe mixture is(13 more words not shown)
- EThere are no(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if people don't know the mixture exists? A remedy could work beautifully and still go unused by people who have never heard of it.
Wanting to recover quickly doesn't close that gap. The skeptic assumes that if the mixture worked, almost everyone with a cold would use it. That connects effectiveness to near-universal use without explaining how people would learn about it. Many nonusers could show a lack of awareness rather than a lack of effectiveness.
What we’re looking for
This is a required-assumption question with an EXCEPT: four choices identify things the skeptic needs, and one does not. Our awareness objection suggests one required assumption, but we shouldn't expect it to be the answer we're selecting. For each choice, ask whether its failure would provide a way for the remedy to work while many people still didn't use it.
Working the answers
- A
This is required. If there isn't enough mixture to supply almost everyone, many people could remain untreated even if they knew it worked and wanted it. Imagine an effective remedy made from a rare plant available only in tiny quantities. Low use would then reflect a shortage, not failure to treat colds.
The skeptic's prediction that almost everybody would use an effective mixture depends on adequate supply. That makes A one to eliminate in an EXCEPT question.
- B
This is required. A remedy might treat a cold but have side effects people reasonably wish to avoid. Someone could prefer enduring the cold to accepting those effects. That would explain nonuse without showing that the remedy is ineffective, so the skeptic must rule out side effects severe enough to deter many users.
- CCorrect
Treating a current cold doesn't require preventing every later cold. Someone might recover with the mixture today, catch a new cold next year, and still have benefited from the treatment.
The skeptic is assessing whether the mixture works as a cold remedy, not whether it provides lasting protection against future infections. C could be false without creating the kind of obstacle to using an effective current treatment that the other choices describe. Lifelong protection goes beyond what this argument needs.
- D
This is required, and it addresses our original objection. People can't be expected to choose a remedy they don't know about. If many cold sufferers were unaware of the mixture, their nonuse wouldn't demonstrate that it fails. The argument needs widespread awareness to support its prediction of widespread use.
- E
This is required. The mixture could work while another effective remedy was easier to take, more pleasant, or otherwise preferred. Many people could choose that alternative without casting doubt on the mixture's effectiveness. The skeptic needs to exclude a widely preferred alternative before treating nonuse as evidence that this mixture doesn't work.
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