Logical reasoning PrepTest 133 · Section 1 · Question 7

Incorrect. This answer suggests the outbreak was of a different disease by highlighting non-Ebola-like symptoms that were associated with the disease.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Bizarro Weaken

Stimulus Summary:
The symptoms of a disease from ancient Athens matches Ebola, including hiccups which are known only in Ebola. Therefore, the disease was Ebola.

Answer Anticipation:
This argument relies entirely on the symptoms witnessed in order to draw the conclusion that the outbreak was of Ebola. Of particular note are the hiccups, which are only "known" to be seen in Ebola.

Bizarro questions make it hard to prephrase all potential incorrect answers (the weakeners), so we should head in knowing that anything suggesting a different disease—especially based on the symptoms present, and especially based on hiccups being associated with an unknown disease—will weaken this argument and those answers can be eliminated.

Answer Explanation:
Even if Ebola doesn't cause hiccups in all of its victims, it's known to cause hiccups in some of them. And no other disease is known to cause such hiccups. So the presence of hiccups in Athens is still evidence of Ebola and not another illness, and this answer doesn't affect the argument. It is therefore correct.

Key Takeaway:
The argument here relied on the symptoms of the disease to reach a conclusion about which disease was present in Athens. We didn't see many comparative statements in the stimulus, but the answers ended up bringing up many comparisons between the Athenian outbreak and an Ebola outbreak. If you miss an underlying type of logic when reading an argument, no worries! But once you notice that pattern in the answer choices, start to focus on it to help you get through them faster.

Incorrect. If the animals that cause the outbreaks didn't live near Athens, then that suggests another disease that did have a vector for infecting the Athenians might have been the cause. It's not certain (someone could have been infected outside of Athens), but weakeners don't have to kill the argument, just hurt it.

Incorrect. This answer highlights a difference between the disease in Athens and Ebola, suggesting that it was a separate disease.

Incorrect. Yet another difference between the average Ebola outbreak and the one in Athens, suggesting that it might have been a different disease.