Critical Reasoning

Dear All,

Another one where I could not understand the answer.

Q: My family doctor said that he would be performing a blood test on me when I visit him today. I know I will feel pain today.

The above argument depends on which one of these assumptions?

A. The use of a needle always causes pain in the patient.
B. The doctor will have a hard time finding the patients vein.
C. In the past, this patient has experienced pain at the family doctors.
D. The needle will leave a bruise.
E. The doctor will have to try different needles to perform the test.


I picked C but apparently the answer is A. Would appreciate someone explaining this.

I actually went through the options and before seeing your final sentence had nailed A as the answer.

B is out of context and cannot be inferred.
C is again irrelevant to the argument and cannot be assumed because not even the slightest mention of past experience is there in the argument.
D is again out of context
E is again out of context.

Hence, A!

A was my initial choice too but realised that there are 2 different statements made.
1. My family doctor said that he would be performing a blood test on me when I visit him today
2. I know I will feel pain today

How is it implied that the pain will be felt because of the visit to the family doctor and because of the blood test only? There could be various reasons of pain of which blood tests (and hence needles) might be one of many possible options.

nkaplish wrote: Q: My family doctor said that he would be performing a blood test on me when I visit him today. I know I will feel pain today.

The above argument depends on which one of these assumptions?

A. The use of a needle always causes pain in the patient.
B. The doctor will have a hard time finding the patients vein.
C. In the past, this patient has experienced pain at the family doctors.
D. The needle will leave a bruise.
E. The doctor will have to try different needles to perform the test.

Negate A.
The use of a needle does NOT always cause pain in the patient. Argument falls apart.
Another way to negate. "it is not true tat...."
"It is not true that The use of a needle always causes pain in the patient" -