Logical reasoning PrepTest 111 · Section 3 · Question 25

Question prompt

Physician: Heart disease generally Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Errors in Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

Men vs. Women:
Both have estrogen and testosterone Men have 10x testosterone as women Women lose estrogen after menopause Men tend to get heart disease earlier; women tend to get it after menopause
Conclusion - Testosterone causes heart disease; estrogen fights it

Answer Anticipation

Let’s start with the question stem. It asks us about “questionable” reasoning, making it an Errors in Reasoning question. However, specifically, it’s asking us to find an answer that the argument presumes without providing sufficient justification - in other words, an assumption. When phrased like this, the correct answer will almost always be phrased as a necessary premise for the argument, so let’s keep that in mind.
The argument here brings up a whole lot of information about hormones and heart disease, which is heavily steeped in science and medicine. Why is this important to note? Because those topics lend themselves heavily to causality, and thus to Correlation/Causation flaws.
Looking at the conclusion to see if that’s the case here, we can see that the conclusion is causal - testosterone “promote[s]” and estrogen “inhibit[s]” heart disease. Is this based on causal premises?
It is not - it’s based on correlations. Men have more testosterone and develop heart disease earlier; women have more estrogen and develop heart disease later. And women tend to develop heart disease after their estrogen levels go down. Those are all correlations backing up the conclusion here, so we are dealing with a Correlation/Causation answer. Let’s find an answer that reflects that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Hormones are the primary Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The conclusion of the argument is that these two hormones are factors in heart disease. That doesn’t require the assumption that all hormones are the primary factors in age-related heart disease.
  2. B
    Estrogen and testosterone are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The argument concludes that these two hormones are factors in heart disease, not that they’re the only ones.
  3. C
    Men with high testosterone Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This specific comparison doesn’t need to be true for the argument to hold together. Post-menopausal women could be at higher risk for heart disease after their estrogen levels dip, and the argument would still work
  4. D
    Because hormone levels are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer directly states that the argument assumes causality (“influence”) based on a correlation. That’s the flaw in the argument, so this is the correct answer.
  5. E
    Hormone levels do not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The argument talks about heart disease risk, not as something that happens to all men earlier than any women. As such, hormone levels can vary from person to person and this argument could still work, as long as the tendency is for those with more testosterone and less estrogen to be at higher risk of heart disease.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 17%
  2. B 12%
  3. C 3%
  4. D Credited 64%
  5. E 3%

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