According to the passage, the LRCWA's report recommended that contingency-fee agreements
Talleyon February 29, 2020
Example 14 of Weaken
The video dismisses choice B for the reason that the passage does not address obesity. However, choice A, which was the correct answer, addresses stress. I don't understand why because obesity was not brought up in the passage, that would make it incorrect, yet stress, which also was not brought up in the passage, is correct.
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You bring up a good point. We should not automatically eliminate any answer choice that mentions a new phenomenon. Ultimately, we need to look at the relevance of these phenomena as related to the passage. In this case, we select (A) because it ties a previously unmentioned phenomenon to both the identified cause and effect in the passage, whereas we eliminate (B) because it ties a previously unmentioned phenomenon to only the identified cause in the passage.
We are looking for an answer choice that will weaken/cast doubt on the conclusion that smoking alone causes snoring.
(A) states that "Stress induces both snoring and smoking in certain individuals." (B) states that "Obesity induces many individuals to smoke."
(A) suggests that stress is a cause for both snoring and smoking, which directly contradicts the conclusion that smoking alone causes snoring. Therefore, stress is relevant to the argument made in the passage even though it was not mentioned in the passage. (B) suggests that obesity causes smoking, which has no effect on the conclusion that smoking causes snoring. Perhaps obesity causes smoking and smoking causes snoring. If true, this could be entirely consistent with the passage and with (B), so (B) does not weaken the passage.
In other words, the mention of "obesity" is not irrelevant in (B) solely because it was unmentioned in the passage, but because its effect is unrelated to the conclusion of the passage.
Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any other questions.
immanue1on May 18, 2020
@skylar: I was going to ask the same question Mark did. Thank you for clarifying!
