#12 - A recent study found that snoring, though not common

[Adam Tyson]

Correct! And the stimulus also said that snoring is not common even among smokers, so the author was not committed to the idea that smoking always causes snoring, only that it can. That's another reason to eliminate answer C - it repeats information that we already had!

[CristinaCP]

Hi! One question about [A]. I understand that it's presenting an alternative cause, but the issue I had with it is that we only know that stress could be an alternative cause for certain individuals. What if stress only causes smoking and snoring for like 5 people? I eliminated it because I thought that the vagueness of "certain individuals" made [A] a flimsy answer. Can someone explain why the vagueness of "certain individuals" doesn't make [A] wrong?

[Dana D]

Hey Cristina,

"Certain" in questions like this is the equivalent of "some" - we don't know exactly what the value is, only that it means at least one - it could be all! But whether 'certain' means 1 person or all the people in this study, the statement is equally powerful because it introduces evidence that the cause of snoring is not always smoking, but rather could also be stress. No other answer choice challenges the cause-and-effect argument introduced in the stimulus (the idea that smoking causes snoring), therefore (A) has to be the correct answer.

Making a cause and effect statement is that bold - you are saying there is no other possible cause for this phenomenon (snoring) other than the cause I've identified (smoking). By introducing even just one example of the effect occurring without the cause, or presenting an alternative cause, or showing the cause occurred but without the effect, etc., you are weakening that cause and effect argument.