The average normal infant born in the United States weighs between twelve and fourteen pounds at the age of three months. Therefore, if a three-month-old child weighs only ten pounds, its weight gain has been below the United States average.
Which of the following indicates a flaw in the reasoning above?
A) Weight is only one measure of normal infant development.
B) Some three-month-old children weigh as much as seventeen pounds.
C) It is possible for a normal child to weigh ten pounds at birth.
D) The phrase ?below average? does not necessarily mean insufficient.
E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.
option E
E:
E
e
E
definitly E
E
E
E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.
E
Correct answer is E.
The evidence on which the conclusion is based concerns only average weight, but the conclusion concerns average weight gain. Because there is not necessarily a connection between an absolute measurement-such as weight-and a rate of increase-such as weight gain-this argument is flawed. The relevant reasoning error is described in E, which is the best answer. Neither of A and D identifies a reasoning error in the passage, since the passage makes no claim that weight is the only relevant measure of infant development in general, and no claim about sufficiency. B and C are consistent with the claims in the passage, and neither identifies a flaw in the argument.
E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.
the answer is E
E
E