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In order to control the deer population, a biologist has proposed injecting female deer during breeding season with 10 milligrams of a hormone that would suppress fertility. Critics have charged that the proposal poses health risks to people who might eat the meat of treated deer and thereby ingest unsafe quantities of the hormone. The biologist has responded to these critics by pointing out that humans can ingest up to 10 milligrams of the hormone a day without any adverse effects, and since no one would eat even one entire deer a day, the treatment would be safe.
The biologist’s response to critics of the proposal is based on which one of the following assumptions?
(A) People would be notified of the time when deer in their area were to be treated with the hormone.
(B) The hormone that would be injected into the deer is chemically similar to hormones used in human contraceptives.
(C) Hunting season for deer could be scheduled so that it would not coincide with breeding season.
(D) The hormone in question does not occur naturally in the female deer that would be injected.
(E) Most people do not consider deer meat to be part of their daily diet and eat it only on rare occasions.
Source: LSAT
Imo B
The argument talks about the adverse effect of the hormones as we do not know what harm do these hormones cause to humans .The assumption will somehow relate the hormone used in deer to the to the harm they cause in humans .Then only we can conclude about the the hormone being safe for humans if it has any effects on humans .
B is the correct assumption.Hi
Given: 1. Per the proposal: 10 mg of hormones suppresses fertility in female deer
2. Per the critics: This poses health risk to people eating such meat because unsafe quantities of the hormone (10 mg) will go into the bodies of the people.
3. Per the biologists: 10 mg/per day safe for humans and no one can eat one whole deer in a day.
Conclusion: Ingesting 10mg into the female deer whose meat is eaten by people is safe for those people.
Pre-thinking:1. The conclusion has been drawn on the basis of the information that 10 mg/per day is safe for humans and no one can eat one whole deer in one day.
2. What if the treated deer has some quantity of the hormone existing in its body naturally even before the treatment? That would up the total quantity of the hormone in the deer meat.
3.
Assumption: The deer being treated does not already produce the hormone naturally.
Choice B analysisThe hormone that would be injected into the deer is chemically similar to hormones used in human contraceptives. The
scope of the argument is whether treating the deer with 10mg hormone is safe for people eating such meat. This choice implies a similar hormone may find its way into the body of people eating the treated meat,
from some other source, the contraceptives. This choice implies that a person might actually end up ingesting more than 10 mg of the chemicals in the deer hormone since the contraceptives also have similar chemicals. Hence, this choice, if anything
weakens the conclusion.
Incorrect CHoice
Hope this helps.