PrepTest 151, Section 3, Question 22
Insurers and doctors are well aware that the(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- AWhen they are(14 more words not shown)
- BInsurance companies tend(14 more words not shown)
- CPeople who regularly(27 more words not shown)
- DMost of the(13 more words not shown)
- EConsistent physical exercise(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe the people doing physical work have healthier backs because they keep moving.
The injury pattern is surprising: sitting at a desk sounds less demanding on the lower back than heavy physical work. But a difference between the groups doesn't automatically identify defective furniture as the cause. Could the workers differ in age, health, or precautions? Could prolonged sitting itself matter, even with a well-designed chair?
What we’re looking for
For a weakener, I'd look for another explanation of the difference in injuries. We can accept that office workers suffer more lower-back injuries and still question the leap to blaming their equipment.
Working the answers
- A
Similar amounts of sitting at home don't provide an alternative explanation for the difference. If anything, A removes one possible difference outside work. It leaves us with the original question of why the office workers have more injuries.
- B
An insurer's reluctance to cover workers with frequent back-pain claims doesn't tell us why those workers have back problems. This describes a response to the problem, not an explanation that challenges the claim about office equipment.
- C
This could point toward an alternative explanation: perhaps physical workers protect their backs through special techniques. But being encouraged to use those techniques doesn't establish that they actually use them or that doing so accounts for their lower injury rate. C leaves those connections missing; E supplies a more direct benefit of the physical activity itself.
- D
Being injured at work doesn't establish that the furniture caused the injury. But it also doesn't undermine that explanation. We still need to know what about the work or the workers produces the higher rate; the location alone doesn't answer that.
- ECorrect
Physical exercise can itself help prevent or repair lower-back injuries. That gives us a reason the people doing regular physical work might fare better despite the stresses their work places on their backs. Their activity may offer a protective benefit that prolonged sitting doesn't.
This doesn't prove every office worker is inactive outside work, or that all office furniture is properly designed. It gives a competing explanation for the observed difference. Once regular activity could explain the physical workers' advantage, the injury rates alone are weaker evidence that poorly designed furniture is to blame.
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