A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevit

We are told that the lucky people of Wistar live considerably longer, on average, than people in other parts of Bellaria. The author concludes that the long lives of the Wistarians can be explained by the fact that their mountainous environment "essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people." To review the author's argument:

• A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity (i.e. to help people live longer).
• The average age at death of people in Wistar is considerably higher than the average age at death of the people living elsewhere in the country. In other words, Wistarians seem to live longer than other Bellarians.
• Wistar is the only mountainous part of Bellaria, and the mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous.
• Because of the mountainous terrain, Wistarians are essentially forced to live physically active lifestyles (even something as basic as walking around is a physically demanding activity in Wistar). Since a physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity, it follows that the mountainous terrain would naturally increase longevity among the Wistarians.

But can we safely conclude that the mountainous terrain is what explains the long lives of the Wistarians? We need to find the answer choice that most seriously weakens the author's argument:


What if personal income is higher in Wistar and, as a result, the people of Wistar have better healthcare? That could explain the long lives of the Wistarians and thus weaken the argument. However, choice (A) tell us that personal income does NOT affect the quality of health care. Choice (A) gives us no reason to suspect that Wistar has better healthcare, so (A) can be eliminated.


If people in Wistar HAD a significantly better diet than people living in other parts of Bellaria, then that might explain why the Wistarians live longer. However, choice (B) tells us that this is not the case and thus removes a possibility that would weaken the argument. Choice (B) does not weaken the argument and can be eliminated.


The author's idea is that Wistarians enjoy longer lives because they are essentially forced to lead active lifestyles. But what if many of the people living in Wistar didn't move there until middle age or upon retirement? In that case, those people, upon moving to Wistar, would be no different (physically) than the people living elsewhere in the country. Sure, now that they live in Wistar, they are essentially forced to lead a more active lifestyle, but would that explain the considerable difference in the average age of death? The author's argument and conclusion could still be true, but choice (C) definitely weakens the argument by suggesting that many Wistar residents have not lived there long enough to be significantly affected by their environment. Hang on to this one.


The argument and conclusion pertain to the people who LIVE in Wistar. We are not concerned with tourists or vacationers, so (D) can be eliminated.


If recreational activities were significantly CHEAPER in Wistar, that might explain why the Wistarians are more active and why they live longer. But choice (E) tells us that this is not the case. The author's point is that just LIVING in Wistar is enough to affect longevity. Choice (E) does not impact this argument and even eliminates a scenario that would weaken the argument. Thus, (E) can be eliminated.

Choice (C) is the best answer.
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I guess it is important to mention something in A :
A) In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives.

We are interested in Wistar region of Bellaria, not Bellaria.
So, only left choice is C.

C is the correct answer. If people moved to the place in. the middle of their lifes, they had no taken such a big advantage of the region's opportunities to lead active life and this is not the reason to live long

Option A also gotta a effect...Since the medical expense is government paid, people are more likely to visit a doctor.If this provision was missing or the medical treatment was expensive people would have avoided or could not afford to visit a doctor...

So the average death rate can be high because of this reason too,,

Premise: Physical activity increases longevity and as Wister has higher average age at death > then rest of Bellaria, hence people do physical activity and that explains their longevity.

A) In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives.
No distinction made between Bellaria and Wister -> Incorrect

B) The Wistar region is one of Bellaria is least populated regions.
This doesn't explain why there is higher than average age at death -> Incorrect

C) Many people who live in the Wistar region have moved there in middle age or upon retirement.
So most of the people are already higher than average age when they moved to Wister and that provides an alternate explanation -> Correct

D) The many opportunities for hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that Wistar's mountains offer make it a favorite destination for vacationing Bellarians.
Out of scope -> Incorrect

E) Per capita spending on recreational activities is no higher in Wistar than it is in other regions of Bellaria.
There is no indication as to why residents of Wister have higher than average age at death -> Incorrect
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A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity. In the Wistar region of Bellaria, the average age at death is considerably higher than in any other part of the country. Wistar is the only mountainous part of Bellaria. A mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous; it essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people. Clearly, this circumstance explains the long lives of people in Wistar.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives. -If people in entire country don't have to bear the medical expenses then this option removes an alternate cause regarding the longevity of people. STRENGTHENER

(B) People living in Wistar do not have a significantly better diet than people living in other parts of Bellaria. -If the diets are not common, this option removes an alternate cause regarding the longevity of people. STRENGTHENER

(C) Many people who live in the Wistar region have moved there in middle age or upon retirement. -Correct. This shows that the average of people living in Wistar is already higher than that of rest of the people in country.

(D) The many opportunities for hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that Wistar's mountains offer make it a favorite destination for vacationing Bellarians. -Out of scope

(E) Per capita spending on recreational activities is no higher in Wistar than it is in other regions of Bellaria. -If there is no difference between the spending on activities then this option removes an alternate cause regarding the longevity of people. STRENGTHENER

why option A is incorrect ? is it because we do not have information whether govt. bears the medical expenses in other parts of the country ?

The way I look at this question - the avg age at death is higher in Bellaria. Reason given - People in Bellaria live a more physically active lifestyle, leading to a longer life span. Option A provides us with an alternate reason in that the government pays for the medical expenses of all people. This can thus be the reason for the high life expectancy of the people in Belleria, contributing to weaken the explanation given that attributes this high life expectancy to the physical lifestyle. Can someone explain me the flaw in my reasoning

abhigulia3006, we are not trying to explain why ALL people in Bellaria live long lives. We need to explain why the average age at death is considerably higher in Wistar.

Choice (A) describes a benefit to ALL residents of Bellaria. Sure, having all medical expenses paid by the government might increase your life expectancy, but why do the people in Wistar live considerably longer lives than other people in Bellaria?

According to (A), Wistarians receive the same government benefits as all other Bellarians, so there is no reason to suspect that they will live longer. If choice (A) said that the government ONLY pays the medical expenses for Wistarians, then it would weaken the argument. As is, (A) is not a weakener because it does not differentiate between Wistarians and other Bellarians.

I hope that helps!
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(c) People that exercise toward the end of their lives can still improve their life expectancy by a lot if they exercise more often. If they all retire at 60 and exercise until they are 100, leading to their longevity, then this cannot be the answer. All while other people in different region die directly after they reach retirement at 60 and sit on their couch for the rest of their lives. Should be incorrect.

ldlefebvre

This is a good point about the scenario, but it doesn't change the fact that C weakens the argument. We don't need to disprove the conclusion, and we will rarely be able to do so. Answer choice C simply reduces the likelihood that the terrain of Wistar has significantly impacted people's longevity. Sure, it still could be the factor, or these people could be relaxing indoors and never walking anywhere. It's simply less convincing that the terrain is the key factor than it was before we knew about these transplanted citizens, and that's all we need.
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Can we eliminate E on the grounds that 'recreational activities' is ambiguous?

A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity. In the Wistar region of Bellaria, the average age at death is considerably higher than in any other part of the country. Wistar is the only mountainous part of Bellaria. A mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous; it essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people. Clearly, this circumstance explains the long lives of people in Wistar.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives.
-OK, but what is the quality of healthcare like in Bellaria? Is it good? Bad? We don’t know what effect this is supposed to have.
-suppose it’s good…then perhaps we have another causal explanation for why people live longer in that region…it’s well known that good healthcare can extend longevity
-suppose it’s bad…well then…that’s self explanatory

(B) People living in Wistar do not have a significantly better diet than people living in other parts of Bellaria.
-strengthens the argument…this rules out an alternative factor that can produce the effect (longevity)

(C) Many people who live in the Wistar region have moved there in middle age or upon retirement.
-Correct…this destroys the argument because it tells us that these people already came in with some ‘healthy’ disposition …likely influenced by a number of variables where they lived previously (and NOT the mountainous terrain in Bellaria)

(D) The many opportunities for hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that Wistar's mountains offer make it a favorite destination for vacationing Bellarians.
-strengthens the argument

(E) Per capita spending on recreational activities is no higher in Wistar than it is in other regions of Bellaria.
-irrelevant…what does ‘recreational activities’ mean? Does it mean physically active exercises? Does it mean going to the beach and tanning?
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A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity. In the Wistar region of Bellaria, the average age at death is considerably higher than in any other part of the country. Wistar is the only mountainous part of Bellaria. A mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous; it essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people. Clearly, this circumstance explains the long lives of people in Wistar.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?


(A) In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives.

(B) People living in Wistar do not have a significantly better diet than people living in other parts of Bellaria.

(C) Many people who live in the Wistar region have moved there in middle age or upon retirement.

(D) The many opportunities for hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that Wistar's mountains offer make it a favorite destination for vacationing Bellarians.

(E) Per capita spending on recreational activities is no higher in Wistar than it is in other regions of Bellaria.

Gist of the passage -> Wistar being mountainous, would impose physical activity on residents -> Increase longevity or increase average age of death in the region compared to other regions in the country of bellaria. Thus, this property of Wistar is the reason for the higher average age of death in wistar.

A) If the medical bills are paid by government for all regions int he country of Bellaria (wistar is a part of it) then everyone should have healthcare paid for, thus, this does not explain why the difference in average age at death. If the option had said the quality of healthcare in wistar is better than anywhere else then that would explain and weaken the conclusion.

B) The diets for people are similar for those in wistar v/s other regions so that cannot be a differentiator causing the average age to go up, thus strengthening that it was the mountainous aspect.

C) If many people moved there in middle or retirement age that means the average age of the population there would anyways be higher. Thus, explaining why the average age at death would be higher. This weakens the connection between mountainaous aspect and longevity. Another way to look at this is that if wistar is a location where people move to in middle age or retirement age, people who would have died at younger ages never moved to wistar and did not contribute to the statistics about average age at death. Atleast not enough to skew the numbers.

D) This option has no impact on the conclusion. Okay, if it is a vacationing spot has nothing to do with increasing longevity.
E) Firstly, we do not know what recreational activities, physical or non-physical. Also, even if we give benefit of doubt and assume physical then if spending is similar between wistar and other areas, that means people everywhere are equally participating in such activities, so everyone on average should have increased longevity according to the argument but that is not the case. Hence, eliminate.

Hi Charles,
I am not able to agree with your option A explanation.

My theory is since the government is paying for health expenses that personal income does not affect the quality of healthcare, this means people are able to take care of themselves more as they don't have burdens or constraints to improve the quality of life. Let's say if the government is NOT paying for health expenses then maybe some people won't be able to afford healthcare and hence it will weaken the argument.

What am I missing here?
Looking forward to hearing from you.

As you suggest, you'd probably expect that people with better quality healthcare would live longer. How does (A) relate to this idea?

Keep in mind that according to the argument, the physically active lifestyle of people in Wistar explains why they live longer (on average) than any other people in Bellaria. In other words, the argument addresses a discrepancy: the fact that people in Wistar are longer-lived than people in the rest of Bellaria.

Notice, however, that (A) concerns Bellaria as a whole. So it doesn't explain why people in Wistar should live longer than people in other parts of Bellaria. If (A) is true, all Bellarians should be equally affected by the government-funded healthcare.

Since (A) doesn't explain why people in Wistar should live longer than people in other parts of Bellaria, it doesn't weaken the argument, and we can eliminate it.

I hope that helps!
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Hi avigutman ReedArnoldMPREP


While I agree A, B,D and E – are wrong – I thought (C) was, if anything, was a strengthener and not a weakener.

Lets say -

Average Age at death in Wistar = 80 years old
Average Age at death in OTHER parts of the country = 70 years old




So, from (c) -- these people, upon moving to Wistar, would be no different (physically) than the people living elsewhere in the country. That implication was mentioned by another expert here [ if you look at how he chose C]

The average age at death for these folks, being referred to in C, is 70 years old.

So the people, who (C) refers to, could not be contributing to the fact in the pink

Why ? because these people have moved from OTHER PARTS of bellaria.

Hence, there must be SOME OTHER REASON for why the pink is true.

We don’t know what that OTHER REASON is – but one reason could be that the local population (who have been staying in Wistar for generations and generations) are the cause for the pink

Why do i give this as a reason for the pink -- we know the locals are leading a very physical lifestyle (because of the mountains)

Hence I thought (c) strengthened because it eliminated an alternative cause

So far, I'm with you, jabhatta2.
How is this a different reason, jabhatta2? Seems like the same reason to me.
What's the alternative cause that (C) eliminated?
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By the way, I eliminated (C) for a different reason. Namely: Survivorship bias.
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Hi avigutman – just so we are on the same page.

Let’s say

• Average Age at death in Wistar = 80 years old
• Average Age at death in OTHER parts of the Bellaria = 70 years old

Group A – immigrants to Wistar Region (retirees or middle age) - this is the group OA - (C) is referring to

Group B -- local population of Wistar Region (kids + teens + 20 years olds + 30 year olds + 40 years olds + middle age + retirees)

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Would you agree that group A IS LESS LIKELY TO BE the reason behind the 10-year gap?

I think we can safely assume the above statement based on the argument. Specifically per the argument, folks in Group A live a different lifestyle

(given they lived in OTHER PARTS of Bellaria, which do not have mountainous regions and thus, folks in group A lived a relatively less physically active lifestyle)



Per the above – I have ‘eliminated’ IMMIGRANTS to WISTAR as the reason for why there is an age gap (at death)

Hence I eliminated an alternative cause (by ruling out immigrants as the cause for the age gap).



I can see why Survivorship basis may come into play but you will need to know “When” do middle age / retired immigrants come to Wistar?


Prior to the age of 70 or after the age of 70 ?

It was you, jabhatta2, who eliminated this potential alternate explanation, by using a premise from the argument. Answer choice (C) wasn't the one who eliminated it, therefore (C) is not a strengthener.
No, we don't need to know their age at immigration. I'll try to explain:
Would you agree that, all else being equal, a 50 year-old has a higher probability of reaching age 80 than does a 20 year-old?
For that reason, when a population gets an influx of old people, that's going to push the average lifespan upward. The incoming population of old people won't contribute any young deaths, by definition. No infant mortality, no soldiers dying at war, etc. These old people have already avoided all of the deaths that could have occurred to them earlier in life. Florida is a classic example of this, as people move there to retire. It makes it seem as though living in Florida will help you live longer, but that's classic survivorship bias.
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