24. The interstitial nucleus, a sub-region of the brain’s hypothalamus, is typically smaller for male cats than for female cats. A neurobiologist performed autopsies on male cats who died from disease X, a disease affecting no more than .05 percent of male cats, and found that these male cats had interstitial nuclei that were as large as those generally found in female cats. Thus, the size of the interstitial nucleus determines whether or not male cats can contract disease X.
Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. No female cats have been known to contract disease X, which is a subtype of disease Y.
B. Many male cats that contract disease X also contract disease Z, the cause of which is unknown.
C. the interstitial nuclei of female cats who contact disease X are larger than those of female cats who do not contract disease X.
D. Of 1,000 autopsies on male cats that did not contract disease X, 5 revealed interstitial nuclei larger than those of the average male cat.
E. The hypothalamus is known not to be causally linked to disease Y, and disease X is a subtype of disease Y.
E is the best answer. Disease X is the subtype is disease Y, if disease Y has no link with hypothalamus, X must have no link with hypothalamus.
A, C talked about the female cat, that can't weaken the argument.
B talked about another disease Z, doesn't weaken the argument.
D just shows some data, which cannot weaken the argument.
我觉得这道题,D也对作者观点weaken了呀,为什么不选D呢? 请NN看看
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