Critical Reasoning

Recently a court ruled that current law allows companies to reject a job applicant if working in the job would entail a 90 percent chance that the applicant would suffer a heart attack. The presiding judge justified the ruling, saying that it protected both employees and employers.

This use of his court ruling as part of the law could not be effective in regulating employment practices if which of the following were true?

(A) The best interests of employers often conflict with the interests of employees.

(B) No legally accepted methods exist for calculating the risk of a job applicant's having a heart attack as a result of being employed in any particular occupation.

(C) Some jobs might involve health risks other than the risk of heart attack.

(D) Employees who have a 90 percent chance of suffering a heart attack may be unaware that their risk is so great.

(E) The number of people applying for jobs at a company might decline if the company, by screening applicants for risk of heart attack, seemed to suggest that the job entailed high risk of heart attack

[spoiler]OA: B[/spoiler]

Is this a weaken question?

Why Choice D is incorrect?

Mo2men wrote:Is this a weaken question?

I think it's more of a plan type question, as the conclusions mentioned in the prompt are not exactly being weakened.

Why Choice D is incorrect?

The plan is to regulate employment practices.

While a person's awareness of the likelihood of that person's having a heart attack may be key for preventing heart attacks themselves, the purpose of the regulation is not really the prevention of heart attacks or to ensure that employment practices related to preventing heart attack risk are effective in preventing heart attacks.

The purpose of the regulation is merely ensuring that certain employment practices are adhered to.

So D is a tempting trap answer that is actually out of scope of the discussion of the use of the ruling's effectiveness in regulating employment practices.

Mo2men wrote:Recently a court ruled that current law allows companies to reject a job applicant if working in the job would entail a 90 percent chance that the applicant would suffer a heart attack. The presiding judge justified the ruling, saying that it protected both employees and employers.

This use of his court ruling as part of the law could not be effective in regulating employment practices if which of the following were true?

(A) The best interests of employers often conflict with the interests of employees.

(B) No legally accepted methods exist for calculating the risk of a job applicant's having a heart attack as a result of being employed in any particular occupation.

(C) Some jobs might involve health risks other than the risk of heart attack.

(D) Employees who have a 90 percent chance of suffering a heart attack may be unaware that their risk is so great.

(E) The number of people applying for jobs at a company might decline if the company, by screening applicants for risk of heart attack, seemed to suggest that the job entailed high risk of heart attack

[spoiler]OA: B[/spoiler]

Is this a weaken question?

The conclusion is contained within the question stem:
The court's ruling will be ineffective in regulating employment practices.

The correct answer choice must STRENGTHEN this conclusion.

B: No legally accepted methods exist for calculating the risk of a job applicant's having a heart attack as a result of being employed in any particular occupation.
If the risk of a heart attack cannot be calculated, then companies will be unable to reject a job applicant with a 90% chance of suffering a heart attack, STRENGTHENING the conclusion that the court's ruling will be INEFFECTIVE in regulating employment practices.

The correct answer is B.

Why Choice D is incorrect?

D: Employees who have a 90 percent chance of suffering a heart attack may be unaware that their risk is so great.
Since it is possible that the risk of a heart attack can be calculated through other means, the conclusion that the court's ruling will be ineffective is NOT strengthened.
Eliminate D.[spoiler][/spoiler]