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Question

Difficulty: Very hardWeaken

Epidemiologist: A recent study in Greenville revealed that residents who consumed exclusively municipal reservoir water experienced a 30 percent higher incidence of gastrointestinal illness than did those consuming exclusively bottled water. Greenville's municipal treatment facility uses chlorine gas purification, whereas the bottled water consumed in the area is purified via reverse osmosis. These data demonstrate that chlorine gas purification is less effective at eliminating gastrointestinal pathogens than is reverse osmosis.

Statement: The epidemiologist's argument is weakened by the fact that several of the most common gastrointestinal pathogens native to the Greenville region possess a high degree of natural resistance to standard chlorine gas purification.

Answer: Answer

Answer

False
The statement is false because the provided fact strengthens the argument rather than weakening it. The epidemiologist concludes that chlorine gas purification is less effective at eliminating pathogens. The finding that local pathogens are highly resistant to chlorine provides a concrete mechanism explaining why the municipal water drinkers are getting sick, thereby bolstering the author's causal conclusion.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the epidemiologist's argument to identify the core premises and the main conclusion.
Premise: Municipal water drinkers (chlorine) have 30% more gastrointestinal illness than bottled water drinkers (reverse osmosis). Conclusion: Chlorine is less effective at eliminating pathogens than reverse osmosis.
Deconstructing the argument is necessary to establish exactly what causal relationship must be weakened.
2
Determine the criteria required to weaken this specific causal conclusion.
A valid weakening statement would need to show that the higher illness rate was caused by something other than the purification method, or that chlorine actually eliminates pathogens effectively.
Establishing a target prevents falling for out-of-scope or opposite-task traps.
3
Evaluate the logical impact of the provided statement on the argument.
The statement explains exactly why chlorine fails to eliminate the pathogens by highlighting their natural resistance to it.
This directly connects the purification method to the increased illness rate observed in the premises.
4
Classify the statement's effect on the conclusion to determine if the prompt's assertion is true or false.
Because the statement corroborates the claim that chlorine is ineffective, it strengthens rather than weakens the argument. Therefore, the assertion that the statement weakens the argument is false.
Accurately classifying the logical impact reveals that the statement performs the opposite of the requested task.

Key Concept

Identifying statements that perform the opposite of the requested logical task (Strengthen rather than Weaken).
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Weaken

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