Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups

Question

Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups of decaffeinated coffee per day are twice as likely to develop arthritis - inflammation of joints resulting from damage to connective tissue - as those who drink three cups of regular coffee per day. Clearly, decaffeinated coffee must contain something that damages connective tissue and that is not present in regular coffee.

Which one of the following would be most useful to know in order to evaluate the journalist's argument?

(A) whether people who exercise regularly are more likely to drink decaffeinated beverages than those who do not
(B) whether people who drink decaffeinated coffee tend to drink coffee less often than those who drink regular coffee
(C) whether the degeneration of connective tissue is slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants
(D) whether most coffee drinkers drink more than three cups of coffee per day
(E) whether people who have arthritis are less likely than the general population to drink coffee of any kind

Source: LSAT

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Official Answer

C

syedazeem3 · Answer

I chose A- to evaluate if there is another cause (exercise stress on the joints) for damages to connective tissues.

In choice C- the evaluation is on ingredients of caffeine coffee. However, the conclusion of the argument is on the ingredients of decaffeinated coffee.

Any color on this would be helpful.

Thanks,

jamescath · Answer

Can anyone explain the choices with reasoning? My choice was A.

jamescath · Answer

Hi, I am not able to get how the answer is C. My pick was A but the OA is C, also I am not able to get the meaning of C.
"whether the degeneration of connective tissue is slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants". Does this mean the generation of connective tissue was fastened by caffeine?

broall · Answer

(A) whether people who exercise regularly are more likely to drink decaffeinated beverages than those who do not
 If YES, then it is supposed that those people are less likely to develop arthritis. This conclusion contradicts the argument.
If NO, then we can't conclude anything. This choice seems to be a trap.

(B) whether people who drink decaffeinated coffee tend to drink coffee less often than those who drink regular coffee
 This choice can't help to evaluate the argument that whether decaffeinated coffee contains anything that damages connective tissue and that is not present in regular coffee

(C) whether the degeneration of connective tissue is slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants
 Correct. By asking whether there are something in decaffeinated coffee but not in regular coffee, we could miss a possible case: those things are in both decaffeinated coffee and regular coffee, but there is some other substance in regular coffee that could help to slow the degeneration of connective tissue.

(D) whether most coffee drinkers drink more than three cups of coffee per day
 The drinking frequency is irrelevant

(E) whether people who have arthritis are less likely than the general population to drink coffee of any kind
 Compared to general population is out of scope.

GMATNinjaTwo · Answer

This does not mean that the generation of connective tissue was hastened by caffeine. Rather, this means that the deterioration of that issue was slowed.

Thanks  broall  for the explanation!

akela · Answer

spetznaz · Answer

+1 for option C. We are required to choose an option for which conclusion will be valid for one extreme and invalid for another. Only option C fits the bill. A is wrong because you can't assume exercise effects chances of arthritis. E is wrong because it talks about general population for any type of coffee - it has no bearing on our conclusion.

Option C it is !!!

Option C it is !!!

aniket16c · Answer

Meaning analysis:
Two sets of coffee drinkers - a. Decaffeinated and b. regular coffee.
"a" and "b" drink  same quantity  of coffee everyday - a are twice as likely as b to develop arthritis.
Conclusion - decaffeinated coffee contains ingredients that are not present in regular coffee and that damage connective tissue.

Option analysis

(A) whether people who exercise regularly are more likely to drink decaffeinated beverages than those who do not
  I think this does not affect the argument. We can say the regular exercising helps improve the connective tissue. But we are making an  assumption . It could be that regular exercising infact damages the tissue as people are unaware of the correct exercise - Wrong  
(B) whether people who drink decaffeinated coffee tend to drink coffee less often than those who drink regular coffee
 The argument focuses on normalized coffee drinking. We are questioning the premise in this case 
(C) whether the degeneration of connective tissue is slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants
 degeneration - degradation. If coffee prevents degradation then having regular coffee actually strengthens the connective tissue.
Yes - thus by consuming non-caffeinated coffee the tissue is degrading at the normal rate - weaken the conclusion.
No - thus decaffeinated coffee does contain some ingredients that degrade the tisse - strengthen the conclusion    Correct answer 
(D) whether most coffee drinkers drink more than three cups of coffee per day
 We are comparing the effect of consumption of same quantity of coffee - Hence this is out of context 
(E) whether people who have arthritis are less likely than the general population to drink coffee of any kind
  We are comparing the effect of two types of coffee on people who have arthritis. The option fails to mention which type is consumed more/less. Thus our conclusion remains unaffected

unraveled · Answer

Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups of decaffeinated coffee per day are twice as likely to develop arthritis - inflammation of joints resulting from damage to connective tissue - as those who drink three cups of regular coffee per day. Clearly, decaffeinated coffee must contain something that damages connective tissue and that is not present in regular coffee.

Which one of the following would be most useful to know in order to evaluate the journalist's argument?

Which one of the following would be most useful to know in order to evaluate the journalist's argument?

(A) whether people who exercise regularly are  more likely to drink decaffeinated beverages than  those who do not - WRONG. It is about knowing how de/caffeinated affects the drinker.
(B) whether people who drink decaffeinated coffee  tend to drink coffee less often than those  who drink regular coffee - WRONG. Already passage says that both groups drink three cups.
(C) whether the degeneration of connective tissue is  slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants  - CORRECT. It gives us reason to believe what the study found.
(D) whether  most coffee drinkers drink more than three cups  of coffee per day - WRONG. Irrelevant.
(E) whether people who have  arthritis are less likely than the general population to drink coffee  of any kind - WRONG. Reverses the situation given in the passage.

Answer C.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups

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Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups

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