Monroe, despite his generally poor appetite, thoroughly enjoyed the three meals he ate at the Tip-Top Restaurant, but, unfortunately, after each meal he became ill. The first time he ate an extra-large sausage pizza with a side order of hot pepper; the second time he took full advantage of the all-you-can-eat fried shrimp and hot peppers special; and the third time he had two of Tip-Top’s giant meatball sandwiches with hot peppers. Since the only food all three meals had in common was the hot peppers. Monroe concludes that it is solely due to Tip-Top’s hot peppers that he became ill.
Monroe’s reasoning is most vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?
The argument specifically mentions that Monroe has a poor appetite. All the three meals he ate at the restaurant had hot pepper as ingredient which as per him caused the illness.
(A) He draws his conclusion on the basis of too few meals that were consumed at Tip-Top and that included hot peppers. - WRONG. Diverts from the actual quantity which argument refers to.
(B) He posits a causal relationship without ascertaining that the presumed cause preceded the presumed effect.- WRONG. If this statement's true then Monroe would hardly be eating anything ever.
(C) He allows his desire to continue dining at Tip-Top to bias his conclusion. - WRONG. Irrelevant.
(D) He fails to establish that everyone who ate Tip-Top’s hot peppers became ill. - WRONG. Irrelevant.
(E) He overlooks the fact that at all three meals he consumed what was, for him, an unusually large quantity of food. - CORRECT. Large quantity, poor appetite are perfectly opposite to each other thus a cause to his illness.
IMO Answer E.