#21 - The cities of Oldtown and Spoonville are the same in

[adkirk88]

I narrowed it down to A and E and chose A. I'm having a difficult time differentiating the two. I understand why E is correct but don't understand exactly why A is wrong.

E addresses the fact that it is possible to have vastly different living conditions in different cities that have the same population density.

A, it seems to me, suggests almost an identical thing: that a cause of health problems in a city could be a result of the living conditions of that city. Does the phrase "living conditions" exclusively relate to population density in this problem? I expanded it in my reasoning to include factors such as wealth, location, etc. that might promote healthier "living conditions."

Thanks for you help!

[Zach Foreman]

adkirk,
You are correct with your analysis of the correct answer E.
I think A is an opposite answer trap. The argument in fact relies on the idea that widespread health problems ARE caused by living conditions, such as crowding. We could break down the stimulus:
Crowding causes widespread health problems
Oldtown has widespread health problems.
Spoonville is similarly crowded compared with Oldtown.
Therefore,
Spoonville will have similar widespread health problems.

What is the first premise that I put in bold? Crowding causes widespread health problems. So how can the flaw be that the argument presupposes that crowding (living conditions) does NOT cause widespread health problems.

[adkirk88]

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for your help!