ans with explanation please...

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ans with explanation please...

by aj5105 » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:10 am
A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune-system activity tend to score much
lower on tests of mental health than do people with normal or high immune-system activity. The researcher
concluded from this experiment that the immune system protects against mental illness as well as against
physical disease.
The researcher’s conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. High immune-system activity protects against mental illness better than normal immune-system activity
does.
B. Mental illness is similar to physical disease in its effects on body systems.
C. People with high immune-system activity cannot develop mental illness.
D. Mental illness does not cause people’s immune-system activity to decrease.
E. Psychological treatment of mental illness is not as effective as is medical treatment.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by niraj_a » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:52 am
I say D.

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by aj5105 » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:27 am
explanation please...

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by niraj_a » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:15 am
sorry about that.

my strategy for assumption questions has always been to narrow down the answer choices, and then negate them to see which one breaks the argument.

in D's case, it is a play on the cause-effect nature of the stimulus. negating it results in the following - mental illness causes people's immune system activity to decrease.

if this were true, then the author's argument that immune system activity affects mental illness does not hold true anymore.

hope that helps.

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by amitdgr » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:31 am
read the assumption chapter in Powerscore CR bible. There are two types of assumptions. One is Supporter and other is Defender.

D is an example of defender assumption.
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by tendays2go » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:37 am
can anybody explain why assumption can't be C ?
(if possible, with reasoning)

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by kris77 » Thu May 12, 2016 1:15 pm
I'd say C but I'm afraid more because of my intuition than any logic.