Q22 - Despite improvements in the treatment

[jreeve12]

I eliminated answer choices (C), (D), and (E) fairly easily.

However, when down to (B) and (A), I failed to distinguish between the two answers and guessed (incorrectly) for (B).

(B) states: "Records of asthma dates are as accurate for the past twenty years as for the past ten years."

I don't see how this strengthens the argument, as the very first sentence confines the scope of the argument to "the death rate from this disease" which has "doubled during the past decade from its previous rate."

Why should we care how accurate records for the past twenty years were? We're only interested in what caused the increase duringthe decade under consideration. Moreover, the stimulus seems to directly contradict (B): "Two possible explanations for this increase have been offered. First, the recording of deaths due to asthma has become more widespread and accurate in the past decade than it had been previously."

What am I missing here?

[zagreus77]

I eliminated answer choices (C), (D), and (E) fairly easily.

However, when down to (B) and (A), I failed to distinguish between the two answers and guessed (incorrectly) for (B).

(B) states: "Records of asthma dates are as accurate for the past twenty years as for the past ten years."

I don't see how this strengthens the argument, as the very first sentence confines the scope of the argument to "the death rate from this disease" which has "doubled during the past decade from its previous rate."

Why should we care how accurate records for the past twenty years were? We're only interested in what caused the increase duringthe decade under consideration. Moreover, the stimulus seems to directly contradict (B): "Two possible explanations for this increase have been offered. First, the recording of deaths due to asthma has become more widespread and accurate in the past decade than it had been previously."

What am I missing here?

It knocks one of the competitor explanations that records over the past decade..... This is a tough stimuli, scary to me, really, but once I read the choices, it wasn't as bad. I saw b and realized it couldn't coexist with one of the explanations.

[agersh144]

I still don't understand the stimulus says that records of deaths due to asthma have becomes more widespread and accurate in the past decade than it had been previous. B says NO actually records of asthma deaths are AS accurate for the past twenty years as for the past tens year. This directly contradicts the stimulus. This is not supporting the stimulus I'm just completely flabbergasted right now.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Great discussion so far!

Lets start with the argument in the stimulus. It cites a phenomenon (increased death rate from asthma), presents two possible explanations (better reporting and urban pollution) of the phenomenon, criticizes the two explanations presented, and then offers what the author considers to be the real explanation (bronchial inhalers) of the phenomenon.

The question asks us to find the one answer choice that does not offer support to the argument--that means the four that support the argument should be eliminated.

Answer choice (A) is irrelevant to the argument because the death rate from asthma has increased in areas with long-standing track records of accurate reporting and little to no pollution. Increasing the size of the urban population does not affect these two considerations we must accept as fact.

Incorrect Answers
(B) supports the claim that medical records are accurate and so suggests that something else must explain the increased death rate. This may difficult to see as relevant, but the critical language is that the rate as double this decade from its previous rate--meaning the death rate in the last decade was up from the death rate in previous decades. If in previous decades the accuracy of medical records was not as accurate, it could be that the more accurate medical records of this past decade could explain why the death rate doubled.
(C) and (D) provide means by which bronchial inhalers could create a problem for asthma sufferers.
(E) shows how bronchial inhalers could be the culprit for the change in the death rate from asthma--though it doesn't show why, it does point the finger at bronchial inhalers.

[Mab6q]

Actually, I believe A weakens the argument. It shows us that the urban population has doubled during the same time as the death rate from asthma has doubled, presenting an alternative cause for the increase.