Mothers and Babies

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Mothers and Babies

by tritrantran » Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:30 pm
Medical researcher: As expected, records covering
the last four years of ten major hospitals
indicate that babies born prematurely were
more likely to have low birth weights and to
suffer from health problems than were babies
not born prematurely. These records also
indicate that mothers who had received
adequate prenatal care were less likely to have
low birth weight babies than were mothers who
had received inadequate prenatal care.
Adequate prenatal care, therefore, significantly
decreases the risk of low birth weight babies.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the
medical researcher’s argument?

(A) The hospital records indicate that many babies
that are born with normal birth weights are
born to mothers who had inadequate prenatal
care.

(B) Mothers giving birth prematurely are routinely
classified by hospitals as having received
inadequate prenatal care when the record of
that care is not available.

(C) The hospital records indicate that low birth
weight babies were routinely classified as
having been born prematurely.

(D) Some babies not born prematurely, whose
mothers received adequate prenatal care,
have low birth weights.

(E) Women who receive adequate prenatal care are
less likely to give birth prematurely than are
women who do not receive adequate prenatal
care.

OA TBA

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by pbanavara » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:11 pm
So :

Premature born babies -> low birth weight
Inadequate pre natal care -> premature born babies

Weaken the argument: Adequate prenatal care significantly increases low birth weight OR inadequate prenatal care significantly decreases low birth rate

Option D : Says it out .. some babies not born prematuresly and whose mothers received prenatal care - have low birth weights.

Option A also comes close - I was hard pressed to choose between these two and chose D.
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by amitabhprasad » Sun Dec 21, 2008 7:49 pm
I will go for "B".
Premature born babies -> low birth weight
Inadequate pre natal care -> premature born babies
Conclusion: Inadequate prenatal care --> Increase the risk of low birth weight babies.
To weaken this we have to show prenatal care is not the cause of low wt babies, but low wt is mainly because of premature babies

Option B clearly links these 2 pieces together.

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by ronniecoleman » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:23 pm
IMO B

cause and effect relation.

No parental care=== less weight babies

but if

less weight babies... --- no parental care..... this would weaken the argument.
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by tritrantran » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:23 am
OA is B.

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by naveen.bobbili » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:54 am
I am not able to decide between A and B.
I am not finding good reasons to eliminate A. Can somebody please help?
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by casfguy » Mon Dec 22, 2008 4:17 pm
From A, There are some babies with abnormal weight.
So if have provided more adequate care for them,
we could improve there weight also.
It doesn't weaken argument.

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by nicolette » Fri May 13, 2016 2:50 am
i go with option B