LR Question 13 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: When several of a dermatologist’s patients complained…
QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen – Exception
CONCLUSION: The dermatologist thinks that the rash was caused by telephones.
REASONING: The rashes were on the side of the face where the patients held their telephones.
ANALYSIS: It seems odd that telephones could cause rashes, since most people use telephones and don’t have rashes. The wrong answers all help show how some people could get rashes from phones.
The right answer just tells us that most people use telephones. We already knew that.
___________
- Allergenic plastic could explain the rashes.
- This helps rule out the possibility that some other device caused the rashes.
- This shows that telephones were used for long enough to cause a rash.
- CORRECT. So? Most people don’t have rashes from telephones. This information doesn’t help us blame telephones for the patients’ rashes.
- This shows that the proposed cause (telephones) came before the proposed effect (rashes.)
More Resources for Strengthen Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Strengthen questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers strengthen questions.
I chose B because I thought it didn’t provide additional support since it stated that the patients had contact between other devices. Thus, other devices are causing the rash not the telephone. I thought D- Strengthened it because since telephones are used by the industrialized world that’s probably why some of the patients are experiencing these rashes. Please provide me some feedback. Thank You.
B is wrong because the other devices were on both sides but the rash is only on one side. If other devices causes the rash, it would be on both sides.
The quantity of telephone use in the world doesn’t matter. Only telephone use by the doctor’s patients matters.