PrepTest 149, Section 4, Question 10
Advertisement: Auto accidents are the most common cause(94 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- ABeing shoved from(4 more words not shown)
- BAuto accidents often(8 more words not shown)
- CNonautomobile accidents other(14 more words not shown)
- DIt is very(19 more words not shown)
- EThe appropriate treatment(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe you fell without getting whiplash.
The advertisement gives possible causes, not a guarantee that every accident produces the injury. A fall can cause a sharp movement of the neck. That doesn't mean every fall does. The same distinction applies to a bump on the head.
What we’re looking for
Yet the recommendation covers any accident involving either event and calls for the clinic's complete course of treatment. The missing step is whether the person actually has the injury being treated. For a criticism, I'd look for evidence that falls and bumps often occur without the neck motion the advertisement uses to justify treatment.
Working the answers
- A
This concerns being shoved from behind. The final recommendation specifically concerns accidents involving a fall or a bump on the head. A shove needn't involve either, so A doesn't directly establish how often the recommended-treatment group experiences whiplash. Focus on that scope difference, not on trying to rank 'rarely' against another answer's similar wording.
- B
Overlap between auto accidents and falls or head bumps doesn't establish that every fall or bump produces whiplash. Even if many car crashes contain those events, the advertisement still hasn't justified a complete treatment course after any such event. B doesn't tell us whether the person had the injury.
- C
Other accidents can also cause whiplash. That adds possible sources of injury, but doesn't challenge or support the leap from any fall or head bump to needing treatment. We need evidence about whether the events named in the recommendation actually produce the relevant neck motion.
- DCorrect
Falls and head bumps very rarely produce the sharp neck motion described as causing whiplash. The advertisement therefore recommends a full treatment course for a category of accidents in which even that motion is uncommon. Being a possible cause of an injury isn't enough to show that anyone experiencing the event has the injury and needs the full treatment.
- E
This concerns how to treat whiplash once someone has it. The objection comes earlier: has the fall or head bump actually produced whiplash? Identical treatment for the same injury, regardless of its cause, doesn't establish that every person who falls has that injury.
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