Critical Reasoning

An international study recently examined the effects of second hand smoke on health. surprisingly, although the dosages of harmful chemicals form second hand smoke are so small that their effect should be negligible, the study found that nonsmoking souses of smokers displayed an incidence of heart disease that was significantly greater than that of nonsmokers who were not as regularly exposed to second hand smoke.

Each of the following if true could contribute to an explanation of the unexpectedly high incidence of heart disease in smoker's spouses EXCEPT:

A. A disproportionately high number of people married to smokers are among the older segment of the married population, a group that inherently has a higher than average risk of heart disease

B. on average, more alcohol and coffee both of which have been linked to heart disease, are consumed in the homes of smokers than in the homes of nonsmokers.

C. A disproportionately high number of smokers are married to other smokers and the risk of heart disease increases in proportion to the number of smokers living in a household.

D. Smokers generally tend to live in higher stress environments than do non smokers and stress is a factor associated with above average incidence of heart disease.

E.A disproportionately high number of smokers live in areas with a high level of industrial pollutants, which have been shown to be a factor in increased risk of heart disease


OA is C, IMO D

My pick is A. How could C is possible when the argument is about non smokers spouses are married to smokers.

"nonsmoking spouses of smokers displayed an incidence of heart disease that was significantly greater than that of nonsmokers who were not as regularly exposed to second hand smoke. "

Option C is discussing about smokers who get married to smokers

"A disproportionately high number of smokers are married to other smokers and the risk of heart disease increases in proportion to the number of smokers living in a household."

Option D I feel like option is an assumption.

Smokers generally tend to live in higher stress environments.

This is an except question. C is correct because it talks about smoking spouses, not non-smoking spouses. Out of scope!

It will be really Good if you don't do mistakes like this.

this_time_i_will wrote:An international study recently examined the effects of second hand smoke on health. surprisingly, although the dosages of harmful chemicals form second hand smoke are so small that their effect should be negligible, the study found that nonsmoking souses of smokers displayed an incidence of heart disease that was significantly greater than that of nonsmokers who were not as regularly exposed to second hand smoke.

Each of the following if true could contribute to an explanation of the unexpectedly high incidence of heart disease in smoker's spouses EXCEPT:

A. A disproportionately high number of people married to smokers are among the older segment of the married population, a group that inherently has a higher than average risk of heart disease

B. on average, more alcohol and coffee both of which have been linked to heart disease, are consumed in the homes of smokers than in the homes of nonsmokers.

C. A disproportionately high number of smokers are married to other smokers and the risk of heart disease increases in proportion to the number of smokers living in a household.

D. Smokers generally tend to live in higher stress environments than do non smokers and stress is a factor associated with above average incidence of heart disease.

E.A disproportionately high number of smokers live in areas with a high level of industrial pollutants, which have been shown to be a factor in increased risk of heart disease


OA is C, IMO D

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:This is an except question. C is correct because it talks about smoking spouses, not non-smoking spouses. Out of scope!

Can you please explain why D is not out of scope.
D : talks nothing about smoker's spouse

This is an EXCEPT question so 4 answers support and one another doesn't support.

Here we are asked to find the reason for the unexpectedly high incidence of heart disease in smoker's spouses. Note here the key point is smoker's spouses.

Smokers generally tend to live in higher stress environments than do non smokers and stress is a factor associated with above average incidence of heart disease.

Here it means if smoker and the smoker's spouse live in the same place and smoke doesn't contribute much to the heart disease then there is some other reason and in this case it is 'stress'.

this_time_i_will wrote:

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:This is an except question. C is correct because it talks about smoking spouses, not non-smoking spouses. Out of scope!

Can you please explain why D is not out of scope.
D : talks nothing about smoker's spouse

Although it is more subtle, choice D is exactly like choices A, B and E: it points to another factor (besides dangerousness of second hand smoke) that can account for why non-smoking spouses are more likely to suffer from heart disease: If smokers are more likely to live in a highly stressful environment, this means that a nonsmoker who is married to a smoker is more likely to live in a highly stressful environment than is a nonsmoker who isn't married to a smoker.