PrepTest 140, Section 1, Question 24
Pediatrician: Swollen tonsils give rise to breathing problems(38 more words not shown)
The pediatrician's argument is most(6 more words not shown)
- Arelies on an(4 more words not shown)
- Brelies on an(11 more words not shown)
- Cinfers from the(17 more words not shown)
- Dfails to consider(15 more words not shown)
- Efails to consider(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Removing swollen tonsils can help. Does removing tonsils in advance guarantee a child will never have breathing problems during sleep?
My first concern is whether the operation itself might create a problem. The evidence concerns removing tonsils that are already swollen, so it doesn't automatically settle every effect of removing them before that happens. That's a possibility to question, not a medical claim we're entitled to assume.
There's also a more direct problem with the guarantee: swollen tonsils are one cause of breathing trouble. Why think they're the only cause? A problem elsewhere in the breathing system could remain even after the tonsils are gone.
What we’re looking for
For the flaw question, focus on that jump from removing one cause to preventing every instance of the problem. We can accept the stated benefits of treating swollen tonsils and still reject the promise that no breathing difficulty during sleep could occur afterward.
Working the answers
- A
The pediatrician doesn't appeal to another person's status as proof. The argument cites an effect of swollen tonsils and a demonstrated benefit of their removal. Whether that evidence supports the sweeping conclusion is the issue, not an inappropriate authority being quoted.
- B
The premise about alleviating problems by removing swollen tonsils can be accepted without accepting the much broader preventive guarantee. It isn't simply the conclusion assumed in another form. The argument overextends evidence that is narrower than its claim.
- C
The conclusion concerns what removing tonsils would accomplish, not what a doctor intends to accomplish. An inference about intention would say that because the operation helps sleep, helping sleep must be the surgeon's purpose. That isn't the reasoning here.
- D
Other medical reasons to remove tonsils could exist while this guarantee remained unsupported. The pediatrician doesn't claim breathing problems are the only reason to operate. The issue is whether this operation prevents every breathing problem during sleep, not whether there are other reasons to perform it.
- ECorrect
Some breathing problems during sleep could arise from something other than swollen tonsils. Removing the tonsils wouldn't necessarily prevent those problems. That possibility defeats the promised guarantee without denying that removal helps with the specific problem described in the evidence.
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