A public health officer reported that 60 % of the children

Question

A public health officer reported that 60 % of the children at summer school have never had the measles or chicken pox and that of this 60 % 
not one child has ever been observed to eat the cheese served in the 
school lunches. From this he concluded that children who abstain 
from cheese products will protect themselves from most childhood diseases.

Each of the following , if true, would strenghthen the official's argument except:

a) medically speaking , whatever serves to inhibit measles and chicken pox will generally inhibit the entire spectrum of childhood diseases.

b) the observations the official carried out were extremely accurate and all those observed to abstain from cheese at school did, in fact, abstain.

c)the children's eating habits are the same at school as anywhere lese and those who abstain from cheese products at school do so in general.

d) recent research has pointed to a deficiency in cheese products as one of the major causes of measles and chicken pox infections.

e) most cheeses and cheese products harbor bacteria that are known to be causative agents for many childhood diseases, such as measles and chicken pox.

prinits · Answer

Clearly D.

Except D, all others support the argument.

bigoyal · Answer

I'll go with D.

a) medically speaking , whatever serves to inhibit measles and chicken pox will generally inhibit the entire spectrum of childhood diseases.  -Stregthens the arg. In the argument, author is concluding for most diseases based on the evidence of measles and chicken pox.

b) the observations the official carried out were extremely accurate and all those observed to abstain from cheese at school did, in fact, abstain.  - stregthens the argument by saying the results are very accurate

c)the children's eating habits are the same at school as anywhere else and those who abstain from cheese products at school do so in general. - -Stregthens the arg. as auther is assuming that those not eating cheese in school also are not eating cheese outside school

d) recent research has pointed to a deficiency in cheese products as one of the major causes of measles and chicken pox infections.  -Correct - Neither stregthens or weakens the argument, since the conclusion has been made for those abstaning from cheese products. So doesn't matter if cheese is deficient of something.

e) most cheeses and cheese products harbor bacteria that are known to be causative agents for many childhood diseases, such as measles and chicken pox  -Stregthens the arg. If cheese has such bacteria, that means abstaining from it will reduce chances of measles and chicken pox

aknine · Answer

All options, except 'D' strengthen the given assumption in some way or the other, but the best answer according to we would be 'E'. Let us look at all the options and eliminate.
a) Is a general statement made, so cannot be stated as a firm, strengthening answer to an assumption.
b) It simply repeats the assumption and does not add anything to it. 
c) Is says that children who abstain from cheese products in school, do so normally, and so are not affected by childhood diseases. Nowhere in the statement it say, why..? abstaining from cheese products would prevent from diseases.
e) Is the best response because it give a logical reason as to why cheese products cause diseases.
So I vote for 'E'.

tarek99 · Answer

I go for D as well

jaxtor · Answer

thankyou bigoyal and all for all the inputs.

BIGOYAL....please explain option D in more details....although i am clear what you are saying but still if possible if you can explain this in more details in different manner....

Best R-
JAXTOR

jaxtor · Answer

btw OA is D for this toughie!!

Happy logic!

best R-
JAXTOR

bigoyal · Answer

Argument concludes that, - children NOT consuming cheese products protect themselves from most childhood diseases (including measles and chicken pox)

Whereas, option D says that cheese products are deficient of something, say 'Vitamin X' .

If children are not eating cheese, that means, they are not getting 'Vitamin X' from cheese. And still they are less prone to measels and chicken pox. So it doesn't matter if cheese products are deficient of 'Vitamin X' or not.
Makes sense ?

jaxtor · Answer

thankyou bigoyal for your prompt response.

Ok let me phrase what I could understand from your logic.....

Let me write my point of analysis

---> i understand that D neither weakens nor strengthen the argument as it is not related to the conclusion as such as it does not affect the conclusion whether the cheese is deficient in something or not.....the conclusion only talks about the fact that if children stop cheese eating then they can avoid getting childhood diseases including measles and pox....

Please correct me if i go wrong in my understanding bigoyal....

Best R-
Jaxtor

bkumars8 · Answer

It's D as this's the only one that weakens the argument.

bigoyal · Answer

yes, thats what I understand as well.

jaxtor · Answer

Thankyou Bigoyal!

Best R-
Jaxtor

A public health officer reported that 60 % of the children

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