PrepTest 133, Section 3, Question 24
Physician: The rise in blood pressure that commonly(62 more words not shown)
The physician's conclusion is properly(9 more words not shown)
- AThere is in(35 more words not shown)
- BMilk does not(14 more words not shown)
- COlder people's drinking(32 more words not shown)
- DPeople who consume(29 more words not shown)
- EAnyone who has(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The milk may contain enough calcium. Can these people absorb it?
The physician explains a chain: a shortage of active vitamin D can prevent adequate calcium absorption, and the resulting calcium deficiency can raise blood pressure. Then the proposed solution supplies calcium through milk. But supplying more of something doesn't solve the problem if the body still lacks what it needs to use it.
We don't need milk to solve every cause of high blood pressure. The conclusion only says some older people can lower theirs this way. We do need a reason to think the proposed drink can get past the absorption problem in the cases the physician describes.
What we’re looking for
For the assumption that makes the conclusion follow, I'd want the milk to provide what is needed to make its calcium usable, not simply place more calcium into a system that still cannot absorb it. That would complete the explanation of why the proposed solution helps.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The milk contains usable active vitamin D and the other substances needed to absorb its calcium. That addresses the obstacle the physician described. The drink now provides both the calcium and the means to absorb it, allowing the deficiency behind some older people's elevated blood pressure to be corrected. It completes the proposed chain without claiming that milk treats every possible cause.
- B
Not containing something likely to raise blood pressure doesn't establish that milk will lower it. The absorption problem could remain, leaving the extra calcium unused. B removes a possible objection about added harm, but it doesn't supply the positive reason the proposed solution should work.
- C
Not contributing to a vitamin D deficiency is different from correcting one already present. An older person could drink the milk without making the deficiency worse and still lack the active vitamin D needed to absorb the calcium. We need the missing absorption help, not merely assurance that the drink won't aggravate that shortage.
- D
This describes what happens if people consume calcium together with active vitamin D and the other needed substances. But does the glass of milk provide that combination? D doesn't tell us. A does: it places the needed substances in the proposed drink in a form older people can use. A rule about a complete nutritional combination won't finish the argument until the milk is connected to that combination.
- E
This links vitamin D deficiency with calcium deficiency. Even granting that link for everyone with the former deficiency, we're still left asking how the milk overcomes it. E gives us more about the problem without establishing that the proposed solution supplies the missing ability to absorb calcium.
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