FeiFei-28

valarie

28. Ordinary mountain sickness, a common condition among mountain climbers, and one from which most people can recover, is caused by the characteristic shortage of oxygen in the atmosphere at high altitudes. Cerebral edema, a rarer disruption of blood circulation in the brain that quickly becomes life-threatening if not correctly treated from its onset, can also be caused by a shortage of oxygen. Since the symptoms of cerebral edema resemble those of ordinary mountain sickness, cerebral edema is especially dangerous at high altitudes.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) The treatment for ordinary mountain sickness differs from the treatment for cerebral edema.

(B) Cerebral edema can cause those who suffer from it to slip into a coma within a few hours.

(C) Unlike cerebral edema, ordinary mountain sickness involves no disruption of blood circulation in the brain.

(D) Shortage of oxygen at extremely high altitude is likely to affect thinking processes and cause errors of judgment.

(E) Most people who suffer from ordinary mountain sickness recover without any special treatment.

the key is A. I can understand. but why E is not right. Because mountain sickness is similiar to Cerebralxxx, but most people who get mountain sickness can recover without any treatment, so it's possible they don 't take any treatment when they think their illnesses are mountain sickness when the illness are really Cerebral, so it's very dangerous.

Do you think the E is faulty because it says "without any SPECIAL treatment"?

robertchu

An interesting question.

"SPECIAL treatment" in E is not the key here.

The best way to solve this question is to use deny test.  Deny E, we get "Most people who suffer from ordinary mountain sickness (OMS) do not recover without any special treatment."  lug this back to the original argument, does this cause the orginal argument to fall apart?  Not necessarily:  although people who suffer OMS don't recover on their own, thus will seek treatment, if the treatment of cerebral edema (CE) is different from the treatment of OMS, the original conclusion -- CE is especially dangerous at high altitudes -- could still stand.  Therefore, E is not a necessary assumption of the original argument.

valarie

You are very right. Thanks.