PrepTest 113, Section 3, Question 6
It is proposed to allow the sale, without(99 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- ACases in which(10 more words not shown)
- BMost of those(22 more words not shown)
- CMost of the(18 more words not shown)
- DPhysicians who specialize(17 more words not shown)
- EFor many people(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What happened to the 16 percent who got it wrong?
If I were evaluating whether to make the medication available without a prescription, I'd want to know whether any of those people missed a serious condition. An 84 percent success rate doesn't by itself settle how costly the mistakes were. But the final conclusion is narrower than the whole policy debate: most people can diagnose swimmer's ear without ever consulting a physician.
'Ever' makes me pause. What if a person had swimmer's ear as a child, saw a doctor, and learned to recognize the symptoms? Years later, that person might correctly identify a recurrence. The current diagnosis would be their own, but it could depend on something learned from a physician earlier.
What we’re looking for
That's the weakness I'd look for. The survey records who got the current diagnosis right; it doesn't yet tell us how they acquired the knowledge. Evidence of earlier medical help would undermine the attempt to use their success as proof that people can manage without any physician consultation.
Working the answers
- A
Swimmer's ear rarely progressing to a more serious infection doesn't tell us how accurately people identify the condition. It also differs from the original worry that someone already has a different, serious problem and mistakes it for swimmer's ear. A doesn't challenge the reasoning about the source of people's diagnostic ability.
- B
We already know these people diagnosed swimmer's ear incorrectly. Their additional mistaken beliefs don't show that the successful majority needed a doctor's help, or otherwise undermine the claim about what most people can do. The added errors simply concern the group already counted as mistaken.
- CCorrect
Most of those who got it right had previously been treated for swimmer's ear by a physician. That supplies a plausible source of their ability to recognize the current episode. They may be applying knowledge gained during that earlier treatment.
C doesn't prove that none of them could have diagnosed it without that experience. It weakens the argument by showing that this group's success isn't clean evidence of being able to diagnose the condition without ever consulting a doctor. Getting it right now and never having needed help are different claims.
- D
This compares specialists with general practitioners. Even if specialists diagnose ear diseases more accurately, ordinary people might still be able to identify swimmer's ear correctly much of the time. A ranking among doctors doesn't tell us whether self-diagnosis depends on prior medical instruction.
- E
Recovering without treatment and correctly identifying the illness are different things. A person could misidentify a condition that clears up, or correctly identify one that still needs treatment. E concerns what happens to the condition, not whether the study supports the claim about diagnosing it.
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