PrepTest 140, Section 2, Question 10
A recent study showed that people who address(57 more words not shown)
The argument requires the assumption(1 more words not shown)
- Apainful conditions will(11 more words not shown)
- Brefusing to think(10 more words not shown)
- Cpeople who have(10 more words not shown)
- Dpeople who tend(17 more words not shown)
- Ethe reason some(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe people who deal with problems promptly also brush their teeth and keep their dental appointments. If the people who avoid problems put off going to the dentist, that could explain the difference in gum disease without involving the immune system at all.
The author proposes a different explanation: stress can suppress the immune system, and that suppression can cause or worsen gum disease. That's possible, but the study didn't directly compare stress levels or immune function. It compared ways of responding to problems.
Where does stress enter that comparison? The author needs refusing to think about a troubling problem to add to stress. That sounds plausible: putting off a problem might leave it hanging over you. But the passage hasn't supplied that connection.
What we’re looking for
We're looking for a required assumption. I'd expect a link between avoiding problems and stress. That won't eliminate the dental-care possibility, but it gives the author's own explanation a connection it needs.
Working the answers
- A
This runs from a painful condition to difficulty handling problems. The author's proposed account runs from a response to problems, through stress and the immune system, toward gum disease. Pain might affect behavior, but the argument doesn't require that separate explanation.
- BCorrect
Refusing to think about something troubling contributes to stress. Without that connection, the premise about stress affecting the immune system has no stated reason to explain why the problem-avoidance group has more gum disease.
B doesn't prove that immune suppression caused the observed difference. Differences in dental care could still matter. It supplies a required step in the proposed explanation, not a guarantee that the explanation is correct.
- C
Knowing how people with stressful lives tend to handle problems doesn't establish the missing effect of avoiding a problem on stress. The argument doesn't require highly stressed people to address their problems quickly and directly.
- D
Every prompt problem-solver doesn't have to seek dental care immediately. Some could delay and the study's group-level difference could still exist. More fundamentally, prompt dental care would offer another explanation for healthier gums, not the missing connection in the author's stress-and-immunity account.
- E
Why people avoid a problem is different from what happens when they avoid it. They might do so because facing it seems stressful, because they feel overwhelmed, or for another reason. The author's reasoning needs avoidance to contribute to stress; it doesn't need this particular motive for avoiding the problem.
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