Logical reasoning PrepTest 143 · Section 4 · Question 4

Incorrect. While this might explain how the plants survived the Industrial Revolution, it doesn't explain how pollution wiped out the plant diseases.

Incorrect. The argument isn't about curing plants that are infected, but about the diseases being wiped out, so this answer doesn't address the situation.

Incorrect. The argument is about the effect of pollution on plant diseases, not on plants, so this answer is out of scope.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Summary:
Two plant diseases disappeared in polluted cities during the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the pollution likely killed off the diseases.

Answer Anticipation:
Two things happened around the same time, so one probably caused the other. That's a hallmark correlation/causation flaw! Language that establishes a timeline where things happened near each other—such as the word "during" here—establishes a correlation. Verbs that describe something having an effect—such as "eradicated" here—are causal. When you see premises with the former and a conclusion with the latter, you've got a correlation/causation flaw.

For Strengthen questions, the most common answers when this flaw is present are:

(1) Eliminate an alternative cause (something other than pollution that could have wiped out these diseases)
(2) More examples of the cause and effect coinciding (did these diseases disappear in other places with heavy pollution?)
(3) A control—cities where there wasn't pollution and the diseases continued to exist, or any situation where the cause is absent and so is the effect
(4) An explanation for how the causality works

Each of these general answers could make sense here, so we need to stay flexible!

Answer Explanation:
This answer provides a control of sorts—a situation where the cause isn't present (or goes away) and the effect does, as well. If the diseases came back when the pollution disappeared, that supports the pollution as the cause of the diseases' disappearance.

Key Takeaway:
Strengthen questions very frequently feature correlation/causation flaws. Timeline language—especially language establishing two things happening around the same time—establishes a correlation and should get you to start thinking about a correlation/causation flaw when you see it in the premises.

Incorrect. Without knowing anything about a causal mechanism, or how these other diseases overlapped with pollution, it's impossible to say what the impact of this answer has on the argument.