Logical reasoning PrepTest 107 · Section 1 · Question 15

The stimulus brought in a lot of comparisons between mountain sickness and edema, and this one does, too, so we should consider it. And it does address the assumption we noted - that edema is especially dangerous because it could be confused for mountain sickness. That assumes that confusing it for mountain sickness results in them not getting life-saving treatment, which would require the treatment for the two conditions to be different. If they were the same, then confusing edema and mountain sickness wouldn’t be “especially dangerous” since the response to both would be the same, so you wouldn’t skip important treatment for edema! This is a necessary premise for the argument, but a really hard one to spot.

This answer explains why it’s dangerous, but not why it’s especially dangerous at high altitudes.

While this answer compares mountain sickness and cerebral edema, it doesn’t do so in a way that makes edema especially dangerous at high altitudes. The disruption of blood circulation to the brain would be true of edema at any altitude.

While this would make any illness particularly dangerous at a high altitude, it doesn’t need to be true for there to be such danger. Additionally, this answer doesn’t tie to the premise about the similar symptoms.

Whether most people recover with or without special treatment, if that treatment is different from the treatment for edema, edema is pretty dangerous when confused for mountain sickness.