Q18 - Herbalist: Many herbal medicines work best when

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Necessary Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: Some ppl who take herbs every say should occasionally skip their does for a couple days to let their bodies recover.
Evidence: Many herbal medicines have toxic side effects when taken daily for long periods (and many herbal medicines need to be taken for long periods of time)

Answer Anticipation:
The author is only trying to prove a weak claim: "At least one person should once in a while skip their herbal dose and let their body recover."

We know from the evidence that some herbal meds would be toxic if taken every day. Do we know that "at least one person is taking one of these herbal meds every day"? No, so the author is definitely assuming that.

Since the conclusion is a prescriptive idea of "should", we also could ask "Is it better to have the meds every day and deal with the toxic side effects, or better to skip a dose here and there (less side effects, but also potentially less benefit from the meds)?" The author is assuming the positives (less toxic side effects) of his advice would outweigh the potential negatives (whatever bad stuff might result by skipping your herbal meds).

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) YES! This was the first assumption we were discussing. If you negate this, it's saying "NO ONE who uses herbal meds uses them long enough to worry abouto the side effects". So the conclusion is badly weakened. "Why should some people skip a dose here and there if no one uses these meds long enough to worry about the eventual side effects?"

(B) The author is closer to assuming the opposite of this. The author is assuming "you are NOT badly messing up the effectiveness of your herbal meds by skipping a dose here and there". This answer is saying that sometimes you ARE messing up the effectiveness.

(C) The author doesn't need to assume this. This actually feels more like a weaken idea, since it makes the author's advice seem pointless/moot.

(D) Too strong! "ANYONE"? The conclusion is "at least some people".

(E) Too strong! "ONLY IF"? The author doesn't need to assume that worrying about toxic side effects is THE ONLY reason anyone would ever want to skip a dose here and there.

Takeaway/Pattern: This is just a "spell it out" assumption. If I say "People who are addicted to their phones always have bad literacy skills as adults. Therefore, at least some people at Jackson High should try to use their phones less." … then we're assuming "at least some people at Jackson High are addicted to their phones".

#officialexplanation

[Als571]

Dear Patrick,

Could you elaborate what you mean by spell it out assumption?