PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 7
It is widely believed that eating chocolate can(81 more words not shown)
The argument employs which one(5 more words not shown)
- AIt cites counterevidence(17 more words not shown)
- BIt provides additional(18 more words not shown)
- CIt invokes the(22 more words not shown)
- DIt demonstrates that(10 more words not shown)
- EIt provides counterexamples(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The reports could be right and the explanation could still be wrong.
People say they eat chocolate and then get acne. Before blaming the chocolate, I'd want to know what else was happening. Perhaps a stressful period changes more than one thing at once. The author's response follows that possibility instead of accusing the people of inventing their experiences.
“An effect for a cause” might initially sound as though the author is saying acne causes chocolate eating. But keep reading. The proposed explanation is that stress contributes to both: it can cause hormonal changes associated with acne, and people who like chocolate tend to eat more when stressed. Chocolate eating is the effect being misidentified as a cause.
What we’re looking for
We're describing the argumentative strategy. I'd say the author uses additional evidence to offer a different account of the same reported pattern. The reports remain in place. What changes is the explanation of why eating chocolate and getting acne occur together.
Working the answers
- A
The evidence supporting the common view is the people's experience: chocolate eating followed by an outbreak. The author doesn't show that those reports are inaccurate. The new information challenges the conclusion drawn from them. Rejecting an explanation isn't the same as rejecting the observations it tries to explain.
- BCorrect
The studies and the evidence about stressed chocolate eaters provide a new way to interpret the pattern. Instead of treating the chocolate as the cause of acne, the author points to stress as a cause of both.
Each part of B has a role. The additional evidence is the information about stress. The evidence being interpreted is the reported sequence of chocolate eating and outbreaks. The alternative interpretation is the common stress explanation. We can identify the strategy by fitting those pieces together.
- C
The author doesn't simply announce that science outranks ordinary experience and dismiss the reports. The content of the new evidence matters: it offers a specific explanation of the experiences people report. That is a reasoned response to the causal claim, not an appeal to the label “science” as a reason to ignore everyday observations.
- D
A plausible alternative doesn't make the original explanation impossible. Stress could contribute to the pattern while chocolate also had some effect. The author favors the stress account, but doesn't establish a fact that flatly rules out chocolate causing acne. D describes a stronger demonstration than the argument supplies.
- E
Nothing suggests that a cause can happen after its effect. The author changes which factor is treated as the cause, not the order a cause and its effect must take. The account is that stress produces both outcomes, not that later chocolate eating somehow causes an earlier outbreak. E describes a different and unsupported claim about timing.
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