Q20 - The level of triglycerides in the blood

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: it's likely that consuming a bunch of fat, processed sugar, or alcohol is a factor causing heart disease. Premises: fat, processed sugar and alcohol increase triglyceride levels in the blood. Having triglyceride levels above 1 milligram per milliliter makes one twice as prone to heart attacks. The level of blood triglycerides rises when triglycerides are inadequately metabolized.

Answer Anticipation:
This conclusion is causal. So is one of the premises (the impact of sugar, booze and fat on triglyceride levels). The second premise, though, just expresses correlation: those with high triglyceride levels are more likely to experience a heart attack. We should predict, then, that the right answer will attack the link between this correlation and the causal conclusion. Because this is a medical question that expresses a correlation between some thing and the instance of disease, we should specifically predict an answer that reverses the cause and effect relationship. Here the conclusion is that the thing causes the disease. We should predict that the right answer might posit that the thing is instead a symptom of the disease, or a result of treatment for the disease.

Correct answer:
D

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Irrelevant comparison! Who cares how these groups stack up against one another?

(B) Out of scope! We're only worried about heart disease here, not other illnesses.

(C) Strengthener! It doesn't make the argument valid, but it does establish a strong temporal correlation that lends credence to the causal claim.

(D) In other words, high triglycerides don't cause heart disease, they're caused by heart disease. Bingo.

(E) What do these people have to do with heart disease? We don't know. Eliminate!

Takeaway/Pattern:
So many Weaken questions deal with correlation and causation. When you see that structure, predict a standard causal weakener: alternate cause, counter-example, an attack on the sequence, or a reversal of the causality expressed in the conclusion. This last one is by far the most likely if the question is a medical one. If the argument concludes that something causes disease, ask whether it could instead be a symptom of the disease or a side effect of the disease's treatment.

#officialexplanation

[JuanJ707]

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[andreperez7]

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