#3 - A group of scientists who have done research on the

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Agyeiwa]

Why is E the correct answer please?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi Agyeiwa!

To see why (E) is correct, plugging in material from the stimulus can be helpful in giving the answer some traction and grounding.

The flaw, according to (E), is that the stimulus uses "the lack of evidence contradicting a claim [the claim is that food irradiation is safe] as conclusive evidence for that claim [that food irradiation is safe]." And this is indeed what the stimulus does. The author notes that a particular group of scientists "discovered no evidence challenging its [food irradiation's] safety." The author then concludes that this provides "certain proof that food irradiation is a safe practice."

This reasoning is flawed. For example, perhaps that particular group of scientists isn't representative of scientists as a whole, or is biased, or hasn't done thorough enough research into the effects of food irradiation. Just because they didn't find evidence, that doesn't mean such evidence doesn't exist. Or perhaps such evidence doesn't yet exist but might be established by some future study. In short, the group not finding evidence challenging the safety of food irradiation is not "certain proof" that it is safe.