CR #1

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CR #1

by joeh11 » Wed May 02, 2007 10:56 pm
It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry. This dose not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.
B. A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.
C. A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.
E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.


The answer is (E). My choice is (B). Would you explain why the answer is (E)??
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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Re: CR #1

by bww » Sun May 13, 2007 12:07 pm
joeh11 wrote:It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry. This dose not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.
B. A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.
C. A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.
E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.


The answer is (E). My choice is (B). Would you explain why the answer is (E)??
A - weakens argument.
B - the argument is that those young adults who are about to be married tend to have less unhealthy habits than those of the same age who are not about to be married. this is out of scope.
C - not relevant
D - not relevant
E- states that those who don't smoke or drink excessively live as long as their married counterparts who neither smoke nor drink. the argument testifies that marriage does NOT cause people to live longer than unmarried people of the same characteristics. thus, E best strengthens the argument.

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by erjamit » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:52 am
What a confusing CR....it needs lot of concentrated reading and comprehension.

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by iwill » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:30 pm
B - says "likely" to give up the habit. Its a chance.
E - It is an additional premise - may b a survey result.. It is a clear indication of the ill effects of bad habits.

So my pick is E

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by peter.p.81 » Wed May 11, 2016 2:07 am
I believe the answer should be E