Polling data reveal that an overwhelming majority of nine–year–olds can correctly identify the logos of major cigaret...

Flavio on December 6, 2016

Why is A correct?

I'm not seeing the similarity between the argument and answer choice A.

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Mehran on December 8, 2016

@Flavio the issue with the argument in the stimulus is an unrepresentative sample.

How many 9-year-old children smoke cigarettes?

It would be far more useful to know what percentage of these 9-year olds smoke cigarettes when they get older, particularly when they are of legal smoking age.

Stated another way, we need a sample of individuals who can smoke cigarettes to determine if there is any connection between recognition of cigarette brand logos and smoking. For example, a study of adults over the age of 18.

(A) exhibits the exact same flaw. It attempts to refute the LONG-TERM effect on dolphins of small quantities of mercury with a 3-month study that showed no effect on the animals.

Again, to assess the long-term effect on dolphins of small quantities of mercury, we would need a study that observed these dolphins over the long-term, not merely for 3-months.

As such, (A) would be the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

bb042745 on May 22, 2020

I agree on the time aspect comparison of the answer choice to the passage. What "tricked" me to choose D versus A was the "overwhelming majority" versus the "1,000" dolphins in the answer choice. What is the best way to avoid that trap? How can we conclude or infer that 1,000 dolphins represent an overwhelming majority? Thank you