PrepTest 150, Section 3, Question 18
Efforts to get the public to exercise regularly,(78 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe health risks(13 more words not shown)
- BEfforts to get(20 more words not shown)
- CAlthough most smokers(17 more words not shown)
- DEfforts to curb(22 more words not shown)
- EThe majority of(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe people respond differently to smoking and exercise. A message that persuades someone to stop one behavior won't automatically persuade someone to start another.
The argument compares a successful smoking campaign focused on danger with an unsuccessful exercise campaign focused on benefits. But two things changed: the message and the behavior being discussed. We haven't tested whether changing just the exercise message would make that campaign more successful.
What we’re looking for
For a required assumption, I'd expect some connection that makes the comparison useful. The argument needs a reason to think the success of the smoking campaign tells us how people would respond to warnings about not exercising.
Working the answers
- A
The risks don't have to be equally great. Even if smoking were much more dangerous, warnings about a smaller risk could still motivate more exercise than descriptions of its benefits. Risk size could affect a campaign's impact, but the argument doesn't require this exact equality.
- B
People could understand the positive health message perfectly and still not exercise. Failing to change behavior doesn't mean the campaign failed to communicate its message. The argument could favor a more motivating message without assuming the old one was misunderstood.
- C
Smokers could know both the dangers of smoking and the benefits of quitting. The question is which emphasis changes behavior more effectively, not whether people have ever heard the information. This particular imbalance in awareness isn't required.
- DCorrect
We haven't checked the other possible smoking campaign. What if emphasizing the benefits of quitting would have been even more successful than emphasizing the dangers? Then the smoking example wouldn't show that danger-focused messaging was the better strategy. It might simply show that smoking campaigns work well, including campaigns that would work even better with a positive message.
D rules out that problem. It says the smoking campaign would not improve by switching to the positive emphasis. Be careful with the direction: D itself supports the author's comparison; the possibility that D denies is what damages it.
My initial concern was transferring a strategy from smoking to exercise. This answer identifies a problem one step earlier: the author needs to establish the claimed advantage of the strategy even within the smoking example. D doesn't settle every question about exercise, but without it, this example fails to support the preference the author takes from it.
- E
Health concerns could motivate people under either message: avoiding the harm of smoking or gaining the benefits of quitting. And the argument doesn't need a majority of successful quitters to report this particular motivation. E doesn't establish the required advantage of emphasizing dangers.
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