PrepTest 132, Section 2, Question 11
Scientist: To study the comparative effectiveness of two(71 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe reporter concludes(16 more words not shown)
- BThe reporter illicitly(23 more words not shown)
- CThe reporter presumes,(23 more words not shown)
- DThe reporter fails(21 more words not shown)
- EThe reporter presumes,(25 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Only people who received M were cured. That doesn't mean M cured everybody who received it.
Picture the two groups. In the M group, some people were cured. Could other people in that same group still have athlete's foot? Absolutely. Nothing says all of them recovered. In the N group, nobody was cured. So the uncured people could include both N recipients and M recipients.
For example, imagine ten people received M and only two recovered. Every cured person would have received M, exactly as the scientist says. Yet eight people would have received M without being cured, contrary to the reporter's claim. The actual success rate isn't given; we don't need it to identify the mistake.
What we’re looking for
I might have other questions about the study, such as what would happen in a group receiving neither medicine. But the flaw question targets the reporter's conclusion about this study. The reporter has changed “M can work” into “M always works.”
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The evidence identifies M as the treatment received by those who were cured. The reporter treats receiving M as a guarantee of a cure, so anyone still suffering supposedly couldn't have received it. That overlooks the possible M recipients who didn't recover. Our ten-person example keeps the scientist's statement true while making the reporter's conclusion false.
- B
The reporter explicitly says “anyone in the study.” There is no jump from the sample to the whole population. The conclusion is mistaken even within the study, because it assumes every M recipient recovered.
- C
We don't need to know whether people outside the study can obtain either medication. The reporter is discussing which medication the study's uncured participants received. Availability elsewhere doesn't settle that question.
- D
Everyone in the study received M or N. The reporter isn't claiming these are the only possible ways for anyone to recover. A cure without either medication could matter to a different question about treatment, but it doesn't identify the mistake about these participants.
- E
A subgroup outside this study could need to avoid M to recover without contradicting the reporter's claim about the study's participants. The reporter doesn't rule out such a group in the wider population. The error concerns assuming that every M recipient in this study recovered; M could fail to cure someone without actively preventing their recovery.
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