Immune system

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crackgmat007: Legendary Member; Posts: 882; Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:57 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:690

by crackgmat007 » Fri May 22, 2009 12:35 pm

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 would be most seriously weakened if it were true that
(A) there was a one-year delay between the completion of a pilot study for the experiment and the initiation of the experiment itself
(B) people’s levels of immune-system activity are not affected by their use of medications
(C) a few people with high immune-system activity had scores on the test of mental health that were similar to the scores of people who had normal immune-system activity
(D) people who have low immune-system activity tend to contract more viral infections than do people with normal or high immune-system activity
(E) high levels of stress first cause mental illness and then cause decreased immune-system activity in normal individuals

Pls explain. IMO E, answer seems to be C

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Fri May 22, 2009 12:35 pm

myohmy: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 252; Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:34 amFollowed by: 55 members; Thanked: 305 times; GMAT Score:760

by myohmy » Fri May 22, 2009 4:08 pm

Are you sure OA is C? This has been posted here before with OA D, in which case:

a) High immune-stem activity protects against mental illness better than normal immune-system activity does.

We can get rid of this one since it talks about high immune stem activity versus normal immune stem activity, while the question addresses high/normal versus low.

b) Mental illness is similar to physical disease in its effects on body systems.

The conclusion doesn't indicate that mental illness has similar effects on bodily systems, only that they are less prevalent on people with low immune stem activity.

c) People with high immune-system activity cannot develop mental illness.

This choice is too extreme to be correct.

d) Mental illness does not cause people's immune-system activity to decrease.

This is the necessary assumption. If mental illness causes someone's immune-system activity to decrease, then people with previously normal/high immune system activity would decrease to low activity when they became mentally ill. Thus, we could not conclude that the immune system prevented mental illness. Therefore, we must assume that mental illness has no effect on immune system activity.

e) Psychological treatment of mental illness is not as effective as is medical treatment.

This is irrelevant to the conclusion.

IMO D is the correct answer.

vinaynp: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 154; Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:55 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 5 times

Re: Immune system

by vinaynp » Sat May 23, 2009 1:32 am

crackgmat007 wrote: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 would be most seriously weakened if it were true that
(A) there was a one-year delay between the completion of a pilot study for the experiment and the initiation of the experiment itself
(B) people’s levels of immune-system activity are not affected by their use of medications
(C) a few people with high immune-system activity had scores on the test of mental health that were similar to the scores of people who had normal immune-system activity
(D) people who have low immune-system activity tend to contract more viral infections than do people with normal or high immune-system activity
(E) high levels of stress first cause mental illness and then cause decreased immune-system activity in normal individuals

Pls explain. IMO E, answer seems to be C

This has been discussed here:- https://www.beatthegmat.com/immune-syste ... 36810.html

naveenk: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:52 pm

by naveenk » Wed May 27, 2009 1:32 am

Take note the difference in question between this post & other posts.

The researcher's conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions?

&

Other post for same, question asks which will weaken the conclusion.

yashanth.ponnanna: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 21; Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:50 am; Thanked: 1 times

by yashanth.ponnanna » Wed May 27, 2009 6:49 am

The correct answer is E. The link takes us to the same passage but with different options!

nicolette: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 197; Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:03 am

by nicolette » Sun May 15, 2016 3:07 pm

I'd say E but I'm afraid more because of my intuition than any logic.

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