PrepTest 118

Incorrect. Susan doesn't debate the goal of increasing the vaccinations, but rather the method of achieving that goal.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed/Valid

Question Type:
Methods of Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Y: We launched a persuasion campaign for vaccines, and vaccinations went up 30%, so your city should do one, too.

S: Most of that 30% was right after free health clinics opened and before the campaign ramped up.

Answer Anticipation:
Yuriko makes a correlation/causation argument—a campaign was launched, and vaccinations went up 30%, so it must be the case that the campaign worked.

Susan doesn't question the correlation (well, maybe a bit). Instead, she brings up an alternative cause. It wasn't the campaign but rather the free health clinics that were opened, especially since that correlates better with the increase in vaccinations.

Let's find an answer stating that Susan brings up an alternative explanation that better fits the data.

Answer Explanation:
This isn't exactly what we anticipated, but it's in the same ballpark. Susan brings up the relatively weak correlation between the campaign and the vaccination rate increase, as well as an alternative explanation that better correlates with it. As such, she does cite facts that weaken the correlation in Yuriko's argument, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
Stay flexible in question types that have descriptive answers! Methods of Reasoning questions have answers that describe what's happening in the argument, and there's almost always going to be multiple ways to describe something. You can and should anticipate an answer, but be sure to consider answers that say something similar to your anticipation in different words.

Incorrect. Susan notes that the "major" part of the increase was in the first 6 months after the legislation was enacted but that doesn't mean that it stopped being effective. It could have continued to be fairly effective getting people to vaccinate their kids moving forward after an initial swell of parents who had been holding off.

Incorrect. Susan doesn't discuss what percentage of children are already vaccinated, so this answer is out of scope.

Incorrect. Susan talks only about a single vaccination campaign and doesn't generalize from it, so we don't know how she feels about most of them ("usually").