Tissue biopsies taken on patients who have undergone throat surgery sh

Question

Tissue biopsies taken on patients who have undergone throat surgery show that those who snored frequently were significantly more likely to have serious abnormalities in their throat muscles than those who snored rarely or not at all. This shows that snoring can damage the throat of the snorer.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) The study relied on the subjects’ self-reporting to determine whether or not they snored frequently.
(B) The patients’ throat surgery was not undertaken to treat abnormalities in their throat muscles.
(C) All of the test subjects were of similar age and weight and in similar states of health.
(D) People who have undergone throat surgery are no more likely to snore than people who have not undergone throat surgery.
(E) The abnormalities in the throat muscles discovered in the study do not cause snoring.

surendrasaini1 · Answer

Tissue biopsies taken on patients who have undergone throat surgery show that those who snored frequently were significantly more likely to have serious abnormalities in their throat muscles than those who snored rarely or not at all. This shows that snoring can damage the throat of the snorer.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) The study relied on the subjects’ self-reporting to determine whether or not they snored frequently.(it adds a necessary information but doesn't strengthen)
(B) The patients’ throat surgery was not undertaken to treat abnormalities in their throat muscles.(may be or may not be,but it doesn't strengthen the argument)
(C) All of the test subjects were of similar age and weight and in similar states of health.( It provides additional information but does little to strengthen)
(D) People who have undergone throat surgery are no more likely to snore than people who have not undergone throat surgery.(it weakens the argument)
(E) The abnormalities in the throat muscles discovered in the study do not cause snoring.(strengthen the argument because abnormalities don't cause snoring rather snoring causes the abnormalities found during study)

This question took a lot of time.

I will go with choice E. But I am not sure.

Thanks

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rakuzan · Answer

+1 for E. We are trying to strengthen the argument that snoring can damage the throat, in other words, that snoring causes the abnormalities.

If the abnormalities caused the person to snore, then snoring would not have damaged the throat because it would be a by product of the damage to the throat.

E strengthens the argument because it removes a possible scenario that would weaken the argument.

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Abhishek009 · Answer

Snoring = Serious abnormalities in their throat

The answer must be (E), which acts as a defender, defending the argument that abnormalities in the throat doesn't cause snoring...

cngthanh190 · Answer

Only E eliminates the possibility of reverting the causal relationship in the argument. 
Hence strengthen the argument.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Tissue biopsies taken on patients who have undergone throat surgery show that those who snored frequently were significantly more likely to have serious abnormalities in their throat muscles than those who snored rarely or not at all. This shows that snoring can damage the throat of the snorer.

Type- Strengthen

snoring -> serious abnormalities
snoring-> damage throat of snorers

(A) The study relied on the subjects’ self-reporting to determine whether or not they snored frequently.-- mild weakener because it makes the evidence sound a bit less trustworthy, since self-reported data can often be unreliable.

(B) The patients’ throat surgery was not undertaken to treat abnormalities in their throat muscles. -incorrect; the throat surgery really has no bearing on the core of this argument. It was only brought up because that's where we got our tissue biopsies. And through studying the tissue biopsies, we saw the correlation between abnormalities and snoring.

(C) All of the test subjects were of similar age and weight and in similar states of health.-- this is a mild strengthener because it makes our data more trustworthy. If we want to prove that snoring caused this damage, we need to control for any other possible variable that otherwise could have caused the damage. This answer controls for some variables, such as age, weight, and state of health.

(D) People who have undergone throat surgery are no more likely to snore than people who have not undergone throat surgery. -Incorrect; the throat surgery has no bearing on the evidence for the conclusion. The evidence was a correlation between abnormalities and snoring.

(E) The abnormalities in the throat muscles discovered in the study do not cause snoring. -- Correct ; it rules out reverse causality

Answer E

akela · Answer

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen, CE. The correct answer choice is (E)

Among patients who have undergone throat surgery, frequent snorers were much more likely to
have significant abnormalities in their throat muscles than those who snored rarely, or not at all. The
author concludes based on this premise that snoring can damage one’s throat:

Premise: Based on biopsies of patients who have undergone throat surgery, those who
snore frequently are much more likely to have abnormalities in their throat
muscles than those who snore rarely or not at all.

Conclusion: Snoring can cause damage to the throat of the snorer.
The problem with this conclusion, much like the problem with many flawed causal arguments, is
that the evidence provided speaks only to a correlation. That is, if we were to look at the population
with abnormalities in their throat muscles, and we were to look at the population that snores heavily,
we would see some significant overlap—there would be many people with both throat muscle
abnormalities and heavy snoring habits. This does not necessarily mean, of course, that a causal
relationship actually exists.

Although this conclusion is flawed, in this case the stimulus is followed by a Strengthen question.
There are several ways that we could strengthen such a causal claim (as covered in the PowerScore
LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible):

Eliminate any alternate causes for the stated effect

Because the author believes there is only one cause (the stated cause in the argument),
eliminating one or more of the other possible causes strengthens the conclusion.

Show that when the cause occurs, the effect occurs

Because the author believes that the cause always produces the effect, any scenario where the
cause occurs and the effect follows lends credibility to the conclusion. This type of answer
can appear in the form of an example.

Show that when the cause does not occur, the effect does not occur

Using the reasoning in the previous point, any scenario where the cause does not occur and the
effect does not occur supports the conclusion. This type of answer also can appear in the form
of an example.

Eliminate the possibility that the stated relationship is reversed

Because the author believes that the cause and effect relationship is correctly stated,
eliminating the possibility that the relationship is backwards (the claimed effect is actually
the cause of the claimed cause) strengthens the conclusion.

Show that the data used to make the causal statement are accurate, or eliminate possible
problems with the data

If the data used to make a causal statement are in error, then the validity of the causal claim
is in question. Any information that eliminates error or reduces the possibility of error will
support the argument.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice weakens the credibility of the study overall, since selfreporting
might not be as accurate as monitoring (many people might not even realize that they
snore). Since this answer choice calls into question the existence of even a correlation between throat
abnormalities and snoring, it certainly does not strengthen the author’s causal argument that snoring
can damage one’s throat.

Answer choice (B): This choice is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether or not heavy
snoring can have a damaging effect on the muscles of the throat. Regardless of the reasons behind
the throat surgeries, the author’s points to the correlation between heavy snoring and throat muscle
irregularities, and asserts a causal relationship. This choice does not strengthen that causal argument,
so it cannot be the correct answer choice to this question.

Answer choice (C): Regardless of the similarities between test subjects, the point of this stimulus
is to assess the relationship between two factors—snoring and throat muscle irregularities. The
author argues that this reflects a particular causal relationship, and this choice fails to strengthen that
conclusion.

Answer choice (D): This would be a tempting answer choice if the stimulus concerned the
relationship between snoring and throat surgery, but this author is concerned only with the
relationship between snoring and throat muscle irregularities. All of the subjects in this case had
undergone throat surgery, so this choice does not strengthen the author’s argument that snoring can
damage the throat.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, because it rules out the reverse explanation
of the correlation between snoring and throat abnormalities (thus meeting the strengthening method
described in point D described on the previous page). If we can confidently rule out the possibility
that the throat abnormalities cause heavy snoring, then this strengthens the argument for the author’s
conclusion that it’s actually the other way around—that snoring leads to the throat abnormalities
discovered in the biopsies.

VerbalBot · Answer

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