A
Dr. Faris was aware that medication A had no known sleep-inducing properties.
B
A committee at the hospital is currently considering revisions to the hospital’s ethics code.
C
Medication A is a pain reliever that can indirectly lead to sleep due to a reduction in the patient’s discomfort.
D
Several other members of the hospital staff prescribed medication A to patients who had trouble sleeping.
E
Dr. Faris knew that the patient was not taking any other medications that have sleep-inducing properties.
A
Compared to the total amount of polluted seawater, the amount of rainwater that falls into Crystal Bay is negligible.
B
Most of the rainwater that eventually reaches Crystal Bay falls on pesticide-treated fields before being carried into the bay.
C
Most rainwater carried by clouds consists of water that has evaporated from oceans around the world.
D
The single leading cause of pollution in Crystal Bay is beachgoers’ leaving behind their trash and debris, which then blows into the bay.
E
Other nearby ocean areas experience a pattern of pollutant increase and decrease that is extremely similar to that of Crystal Bay.
A
Domesticated animals cannot be turned into wild species by breeding only those animals that display some wild characteristics.
B
In some animal species, wild members mate more frequently than tame members.
C
In some animal species, no members ever display tameness.
D
In some animal species, tame members are less fertile than wild members.
E
In some domesticated animal species, some members are much more tame than other members.
A
Repressors are better able than sensitizers to focus on their work and to avoid distractions.
B
Repressors are less apt than sensitizers to alienate people by expressing their emotions.
C
Parents and other caregivers tend to reward repressors more than they reward sensitizers for academic performance and social behavior deemed desirable.
D
Some psychologists have hypothesized that the desire to maintain social and academic success and self-esteem strengthens repressors’ tendency to repress upsetting thoughts and feelings.
E
Sensitizers tend to focus more than repressors do on the difficulties of succeeding in their projects rather than on factors that are likely to contribute to success.
The author also assumes that the clay can produce non-living artifacts like nanodes
A
No known form of bacteria is complicated enough in structure to engage in a sexual type of reproduction.
B
Single-celled creatures can combine to form a multicelled structure and then reproduce before they disband into separate single cells again.
C
The material phenomena that some scientists claim are the fossilized remains of bacteria in meteorites from Mars are approximately the same size as nanobes.
D
Previous definitions of life were based on research done with inferior microscopes no longer in use.
E
Animals such as cold-blooded lizards can be physiologically simpler, though still larger, than other animals.
A
The political systems that have emerged since the time of Plato and Aristotle have in various ways been different from the political system in ancient Athens.
B
The citizens of ancient Athens generally held in high esteem people who were accomplished intellectually.
C
Financial support for intellectual endeavors is typically unavailable in unstable political environments, but in ancient Athens such support was provided by wealthy citizens.
D
Significant intellectual advances sometimes, though not always, lead to stable political environments.
E
Many thinkers besides Plato and Aristotle contributed to the intellectual achievements of ancient Athens.
Psychologist: We measured the “cognitive plasticity,” or the willingness to accept new ideas, of a group of people of both genders and of all ages. The first-born children in the study consistently exhibited less cognitive plasticity than did their siblings. It is reasonable to think that those who are open to new ideas will be adventurous in other ways. Hence, our study suggests that siblings of first-born children will tend to be more adventurous than will the first-borns.
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The psychologist hypothesizes that siblings of first-born children are usually more adventurous than the first-born children themselves. He supports this by citing a study that found that siblings of first-born children were more open to new ideas than were first-born children. He also claims that people open to new ideas are likely to be more adventurous in other ways.
Notable Assumptions
The psychologist assumes that measuring cognitive plasticity is an accurate way to determine how adventurous someone is, without considering that adventurousness might also involve other qualities or factors not captured by the study.
A
Some of the great creative geniuses in history were first-born children.
Irrelevant— the psychologist’s hypothesis is about the general population, not about creative geniuses. Also, we don’t know how adventurousness relates to being a creative genius, so we can't determine if creative geniuses are more or less adventurous than others.
B
In most cases, the more younger siblings one has, the greater one’s cognitive plasticity.
Irrelevant—the psychologist compares the cognitive plasticity of siblings in the same family, finding that first-borns have less cognitive plasticity than their younger siblings. But (B) compares first-born children to other first-borns in different families.
C
Other studies have shown a correlation between cognitive plasticity and the willingness to take risks.
If cognitive plasticity correlates with risk-taking, it becomes more plausible that birth order correlates with adventurousness. This is because birth order now correlates with risk-taking, which causes one to be adventurous.
D
A study of business executives shows that several industry leaders have older siblings.
Irrelevant— like (A), a study on business executives can’t be used to draw inferences about the general population. Also, we don’t know how adventurousness relates to being a business executive, so we can't determine if business executives are more adventurous than others.
E
Most of the participants in the study had characterized themselves as more adaptable than other people.
Irrelevant— we don’t know how adaptability is connected to cognitive plasticity or adventurousness. But even if they are connected, it’s unclear how (E) would strengthen the argument.
This is a Strengthen question.
The psychologist starts by defining jargon. “Cognitive plasticity” is the willingness to accept new ideas. Then we’re told the results of a study which found that cognitive plasticity (negatively) correlates with birth order. That means that firstborn children tend to have lower cognitive plasticity than last-born children. Or in other words, later-born children are higher in cognitive plasticity.
The next premise is also a correlation but the psychologist simply declares it to be “reasonable.” For analyzing the argument, we’ll simply treat this second premise as true, because it's a premise. Cognitive plasticity is positively correlated with adventurousness.
So now with the two correlational premises we have a correlation chain. Birth order is correlated with cognitive plasticity which is correlated with adventurousness.
The psychologist concludes with a prediction. She says that birth order will be negatively correlated with adventurousness. That means that firstborn children will tend to be less adventurous than later-born children. Or in other words, later-born children will tend to be more adventurous than their eldest siblings.
As is typically the case with Weaken and Strengthen questions that utilize causation logic, it's hard to anticipate where the answers will go. This is why we default to the strategy of POE. The strategy works pretty well here.
Answer Choice (A) says some of the great creative geniuses in history were firstborn children. We can write this answer off simply for being unrepresentative. The correlations in the premises and conclusion are about people in general. (A) confines itself to great creative geniuses in history. We should be very hesitant to draw any inferences from those people because by definition they are unrepresentative of the general population. Additionally, even if we were to draw some inferences from this unrepresentative sample, it pushes in the wrong direction. Firstborn children are supposed to be less adventurous.
Answer Choice (B) says, in most cases, the more younger siblings one has, the greater one's cognitive plasticity. This is a comparative statement so let’s make sure we understand what is being compared. On the surface it sounds like it's contradicting the correlation above. But that's not true. The correlation above compared cognitive plasticity of siblings to each other. (B) compares the cognitive plasticity of firstborn children to other firstborn children. (B) is comparing people who are not each other's siblings. According to (B), the eldest of five siblings from one family will tend to be more plastic than the eldest of two siblings from another family. Now that we know what (B) is saying, we can eliminate (B) for being irrelevant. Imagine if (B) stated the opposite, that the eldest of five siblings is less plastic than the eldest of two siblings. So what?
Correct Answer Choice (C) says other studies have shown a correlation between cognitive plasticity and the willingness to take risks. This is helpful for the argument because it reveals another correlation (backed up by studies) which suggests a causal mechanism. Now that we know cognitive plasticity correlates with risk-taking, a plausible hypothesis arises which can explain why birth order might correlate with adventurousness. It's because birth order correlates with risk-taking and risk-taking is what causes one to be adventurous.
Answer Choice (D) says a study of business executives shows that several industry leaders have older siblings. This is similar to (A) in that we should be careful about drawing inferences about the population at large based on the sample here which reveals information about only several people. Several people who happen to be industry-leading business executives have older siblings. This should be entirely unsurprising. I'm sure it's also true (even though (D) doesn't say it) that several people who happen to be industry-leading business executives have younger siblings or are the middle child or are the only child. But whatever information is revealed about whether or not they have siblings or the birth order they inhabit, there are just too few of them for us to use this information in a reliable manner. Another issue is the questionable relationship between being a business executive and being adventurous. I'm not sure which way that assumption goes. Are you more likely to be a business leader if you're more adventurous? Perhaps that's true. But the need to make this assumption is also a weakness of this answer choice.
Answer Choice (E) says most participants in the study had characterized themselves as more adaptable than other people. We can eliminate this answer simply by recognizing that it’s not clear what the relationship is between being more adaptable and being adventurous on the one hand and birth order on the other.
The Researcher also assumes that because the keyboards and monitors are positioned in a way that “encourages” poor posture, that it actually results in bad posture.
The Researcher also assumes that the difference in time spent on the computer is negligible between elementary students and office workers.
A
The recommended height for computers is different for children than for adults.
B
Children spend more time working with computers at home than at school.
C
The greater suppleness of children’s bodies makes them less susceptible than adults to repetitive stress injuries.
D
Office workers’ keyboards and monitors are usually not at the recommended heights for healthy postures for adults.
E
Office workers are more likely to report injuries than children are.
A
Because the vegetation on the open plains changes from green to brown as the season changes from wet to dry, true camouflage coloring for a prey species would have to change according to the seasons.
B
Zebras are able to judge from the demeanor of lions they see in the vicinity whether or not those lions are preparing to hunt, and the zebras ignore the lions that are not.
C
Lions that hunt zebras are themselves colored in a way that blends in with the brown color of dry vegetation, so that in the dry season, when prey is scarce, the lions can creep up on their prey to within a distance from which the lions have a favorable chance of succeeding in the hunt.
D
When lions hunt, the whole pride shares in the food obtained when a prey animal is successfully brought down by one of the hunting lions.
E
When zebras run in a group, as they generally do in response to danger, the stripe markings make it difficult for a predator pursuing a single individual to discern its outline.
A
Problems faced in daily life usually can be solved effectively using only common sense.
B
Most teachers are able to teach courses in a single academic discipline more effectively than they can teach interdisciplinary courses.
C
Students who take only courses in individual academic disciplines are rarely able to combine knowledge from those disciplines.
D
Most students who are required to take courses that cover only single disciplines can effectively solve many problems faced in daily life.
E
Most interdisciplinary courses are not designed specifically to teach students how to solve problems faced in daily life.
This is a Strengthen question.
The educator's argument contains only one premise and one conclusion. The premise says that few problems faced in daily life can be solved most effectively, if at all, by applying knowledge from any single academic discipline in isolation. That means most problems faced in daily life cannot be most effectively solved by… [rest of sentence]. From that she concludes schools should not require students to take courses in individual academic disciplines but should instead require them to take interdisciplinary courses.
The argument contains a number of assumptions. One is the move from a descriptive premise to a prescriptive conclusion. The premise states what is the case. It is the case that most problems cannot be solved… The conclusion moves to a claim about what schools should do in response. That assumes that schools should try to help students solve the problems that they face in daily life.
Another assumption is that schools have to teach students interdisciplinary courses in order for students to combine knowledge from different disciplines. Is that true? If the schools don't teach an interdisciplinary course on, say, ethics and economics and instead teach those courses separately, does that mean the students can't combine knowledge from the two? That's not clear. But the argument assumes they can’t and concludes that it’s up to the schools to teach interdisciplinary courses.
Correct Answer Choice (C) recognizes this assumption and declares it to be so. It says that students who take only courses in individual disciplines are rarely able to combine knowledge from those disciplines. If that's the case, then the need for schools to teach interdisciplinary courses is much stronger.
Answer Choice (A) cuts against the first assumption we identified. It says that problems faced in daily life usually can be solved effectively using only common sense. If this is true, then who cares about whether schools teach disciplines in an isolated or interdisciplinary manner? If this is true, then the fact that applying knowledge from a single discipline in isolation usually does not amount to a solution doesn't seem like a problem at all, because students can just use their common sense.
Answer Choice (B) says most teachers are able to teach courses in a single academic discipline more effectively than they can teach interdisciplinary courses. This means that if the policy in the conclusion is implemented, then the quality of instruction will suffer as a result. Most teachers will become less effective than when they were in the past teaching single disciplines. This consideration certainly weighs against implementing the policy and the conclusion. So it doesn't strengthen the argument.
Answer Choice (D) says most students who are required to take courses that cover only single disciplines can effectively solve many problems facing daily life. This is not necessarily telling us anything new. The premise already made room for the information here. The premise said that few problems can be solved by applying knowledge from a single discipline in isolation. That already acknowledged the possibility that some problems can.
Answer Choice (E) says most interdisciplinary courses are not designed specifically to teach students how to solve problems faced in daily life. It's not clear if a course not being specifically designed to do a thing means that the course won't end up achieving that result anyway. But even if we assume that's true, meaning that because the courses are not designed specifically to teach students how to resolve problems in daily life, the courses therefore don't end up teaching students how to solve problems in daily life, then that's just the weakness of the policy in the conclusion. That doesn't strengthen the argument.