Bunuel wrote:
The attitude that it is all right to do what harms no one but oneself is usually accompanied by a disregard for the actual interdependence of people. Destroying one’s own life or health means not being available to help family members or the community; it means, instead, absorbing the limited resources of the community for food, health services, and education without contributing fully to the community.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the view expressed?
A. The cost of avoidable accidents and illnesses raises health insurance rates for everyone.
B. Harm to one person can result in an indirect benefit, such as the availability of work in heal-related fields, to others.
C. Life would be dull if it were necessary to abstain from all of the minor pleasures that entail some risk of harm to a person who indulges in them.
D. The contribution a person makes to the community cannot be measured by that person’s degree of health.
E. The primary damage caused by the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and unauthorized drugs is done to the person who uses those substances.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
The passage presents a view that harming oneself can harm other people as well. This answer presents a situation that illustrates how harming oneself through an avoidable accident or illness can create a cost for everyone else. Thus,
the answer choice of A supports the passage.
B is incorrect. Support for the view expressed consists in showing that harm to oneself also harms others. This answer choice gives an example of a way that harm to one person can benefit others, and thus the choice weakens the passage.
The third answer choice is incorrect. This statement does not support the view that harming oneself can harm others. Rather, this choice addresses another issue that might be involved in deciding whether persons should risk harm-namely, how pleasurable the activities involved in taking such risks might be. Thus, the answer choice is neutral with respect to the implicit argument in the passage. D is also an incorrect answer choice. Support for the view expressed consists in showing that harm to oneself also harms others. The fourth choice implies that two persons might be the same in degree of health and yet differ in their contribution to the community. This claim is neutral with respect to the issue of whether a decline in a person’s health would leave that person’s contribution to the community unaffected. The last answer choice is incorrect. This statement does not support argue against the passage’s view that harming oneself can harm others. Rather, this statement only describes different ways of harming oneself.
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