A team of pediatricians recently announced that pet birds are more

Question

A team of pediatricians recently announced that pet birds are more likely to bite children under age 13 than people of any other age group. The team's finding was based on a study showing that the majority of all bird bites requiring medical attention involved children under 13. The study also found that the birds most likely to bite are cockatiels and parakeets.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the pediatricians' conclusion that birds are more likely to bite children under age 13 than people of any other age group?

A. More than half of bird bites not requiring medical attention, which exceed the number requiring such attention, involve people aged 13 and older.

B. The majority of bird bites resulting in the death of the bitten person involve people aged 65 and older.

C. Many serious bird bites affecting children under age 13 are inflicted by birds other than cockatiels and parakeets.

D. Most bird bites in children under age 13 that require medical attention are far less serious than they initially appear.

E. Most parents can learn to treat bird bites effectively if they avail themselves of a small amount of medical information.

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_rajoriyaji_ · Answer

the answer is A
BECAUSE , It directly contradicts the support of the main argument

Paras96 · Answer

To weaken the pediatricians' conclusion that birds are more likely to bite children under age 13 than people of any other age group, we need to find information that suggests another age group may actually have a higher likelihood of bird bites or that the conclusion is not well-supported. Let's evaluate each option:

A. This option weakens the conclusion. If more than half of bird bites not requiring medical attention involve people aged 13 and older, it suggests that adults are also commonly bitten by birds. This undermines the claim that children under 13 are more likely to be bitten than any other age group.

B. This option does not directly address the likelihood of bird bites among different age groups. It talks about the severity of bird bites and the age group affected but does not provide information about the likelihood of bites.

C. This option weakens the conclusion. If many serious bird bites affecting children under age 13 are inflicted by birds other than cockatiels and parakeets, it implies that the conclusion is not solely based on the biting behavior of these two bird types and may not apply universally to all birds.

D. This option does not directly weaken the conclusion about the likelihood of bird bites among different age groups. It talks about the seriousness of bird bites in children but does not address the likelihood of bites in other age groups.

E. This option does not directly weaken the conclusion regarding the likelihood of bird bites among different age groups. It talks about parents' ability to treat bird bites but does not provide information about who is more likely to be bitten.

Option A weakens the pediatricians' conclusion by suggesting that people aged 13 and older also experience bird bites that do not require medical attention. This implies that the conclusion that children under age 13 are the most likely age group to be bitten is not well-supported. Therefore, option A is the most appropriate choice.

sanchitb23 · Answer

A. More than half of bird bites not requiring medical attention, which exceed the number requiring such attention, involve people aged 13 and older.  Argument talks about 13 below, here it is 13 above, Weakens

B. The majority of bird bites resulting in the death of the bitten person involve people aged 65 and older.  Death by bites is OOS

C. Many serious bird bites affecting children under age 13 are inflicted by birds other than cockatiels and parakeets.  Weakens a premise not the conclusion

D. Most bird bites in children under age 13 that require medical attention are far less serious than they initially appear.  Seriousness is OOS

E. Most parents can learn to treat bird bites effectively if they avail themselves of a small amount of medical information.  Treatments is OOS

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

A

Step 1: Identify the Question Type

This stem contains a wealth of helpful information. Not only do we see the telltale keyword “weaken” indicating the question type, but we also have the conclusion of the argument stated directly in the stem. Part of our job is already done.

Step 2: Untangle the Stimulus

The basic conclusion of the pediatricians is that pet birds are more likely to bite young children than older people. The evidence for this is a study, which should ring alarm bells for representativeness issues. The study indicates that when we look at injuries that required medical attention, we see that most of the injuries were to young children.

Step 3: Predict the Answer

But not all bird bites necessarily require medical attention, so in order for this study’s results to prove that birds are more likely to bite young children overall, we need proof that the bird bites requiring medical attention are representative of all bird bites. So to weaken this argument, let’s find a choice that essentially says, “Bites that require medical attention are not representative of bites in general.”

Step 4: Evaluate the Choices

You’ll then be drawn to choice (A): Looking at all bird bite injuries reveals that most of them don’t require medical attention, and of those that don’t, more than half of them are suffered by people over the age of 13. (A) would actually indicate that birds are just as likely, if not more likely, to bite people over the age of 13 as to bite younger children. Thus, choice (A) is the correct answer. Just because senior citizens are more likely to die from bird bites, as (B) says, doesn’t mean that they’re more likely to be bitten in the first place. (C) improperly seizes on the last sentence of the argument, which is a tangential statement that has no bearing on the overall conclusion. (D) is off base because the argument deals with the likelihood that a bird will bite someone, not with the likelihood that the bite is serious. (E) commits a similar error by dealing with treatment; this argument is only concerned with the relative frequency of bird bites occurring in the first place and not with the treatment plans for bites that have already occurred.  Choice (A) is correct.

A team of pediatricians recently announced that pet birds are more

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