Critical Reasoning

pls explain

using POE, i was torn between C and D, and chose D in the end. i found this one to be tricky.

we have to choose a piece of data that would support the following idea - adults would still long even if they didn't do regular volunteer-work.

this can possibly be supported by say if endorphins were released by or used for non-volunteer related activities.

A and B are out for sure as they seem to be out of scope - the passage doesnt care about women vs. men, and we don't know whether young adults continued regular volunteer-work later in life. E goes against the idea of the passage.

imo A

1. Study was performed on adults

So, all the women and men mentioned in choice A are adults.

2. Women outnumber men in respect to volunteer work

So, if a lot more women do volunteer work than men (who live less than women), the study is bound to be skewed and reflect the longevity enjoyed by women.

niraj_a wrote:using POE, i was torn between C and D, and chose D in the end. i found this one to be tricky.

we have to choose a piece of data that would support the following idea - adults would still long even if they didn't do regular volunteer-work.

this can possibly be supported by say if endorphins were released by or used for non-volunteer related activities.

A and B are out for sure as they seem to be out of scope - the passage doesnt care about women vs. men, and we don't know whether young adults continued regular volunteer-work later in life. E goes against the idea of the passage.

C is out as the last sentence of the argument states that - if doing volunteer work had nothing to do with longevity i.e. endorphins don't help increase life span. Therefore, effectively ruling out any choices relying upon endorphins.

D - I still don't get how it influences the statistics.

Even this question baffled me alot and i have come up with a explanation that i would like to validate.

The CR question falls into the category of GROUP COMPOSITION.
Argument : A Group doing a certain activity( volunteering) attains a particular characteristic( longevity) which is attributed to the activity ( as a premise that the Group not doing the activity donot attain the characteristic)

Question Stem: The question really asks to weaken the argument by saying that the characteristic is not attributable to the activity.. ie longetivity is not attributable to volunteering.

So the Argument can be weakened by having another attribution for the characteristic and the answer is group composition ..i.e the way the group is formed inherits the characteristic and is not attributed to any activity undertaken by the group.

Answer Choices:

Choice A: The group is so formed that women do more volunteering than men and women tend to live longer is established by the answer choice..

Choice B: The fact that group is formed by young adults is a good answer choice but fails the test becuase it cannot be assumed that young adults have a longer longevity, though they would have a longer life to leave being young..

Choice C: The masking can have a effect on well being but not on the longetivity.

Choice D & E : Weaken the attribution of the longetivity to volunteering... saying that volunteering doesnt lead to longetivity but donot help us find another explanation of the attribution which is important as per the stem " statistic would be what we would expect" by which the question says the longetivity is there but how ?

Nice question. Hope not to get such on my exam)))
I tried to follow the logic of the stimulus.

help others --> release endorphin --> well-being
____________ endorphin causes lengevity
So, volunteers live longer

We are to find evidence that will give another explanation of why volunteers live longer (not by the fact that he or she is a volunteer)

Only A gives such explanation: volunteers live longer due to the prevalence of the sub-group that lives longer

IMHO

Intially i thought it to be C, but after reading Rohan explanation I also feel the same , it should be A.

BTW what is OA?

The name of the picture has a hint!!

ups

I will choose A. OA is A?