24. The interstitial nucleus, a sub-region of the brain’s hypothalamus, is typically smaller for male cats than for female cats. A neurobiologist performed autopsies on male cats who died from disease X, a disease affecting no more than .05 percent of male cats, and found that these male cats had interstitial nuclei that were as large as those generally found in female cats. Thus, the size of the interstitial nucleus determines whether or not male cats can contract disease X.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. No female cats have been known to contract disease X, which is a subtype of disease Y.

B. Many male cats that contract disease X also contract disease Z, the cause of which is unknown.

C. the interstitial nuclei of female cats who contact disease X are larger than those of female cats who do not contract disease X.

D. Of 1,000 autopsies on male cats that did not contract disease X, 5 revealed interstitial nuclei larger than those of the average male cat.

E. The hypothalamus is known not to be causally linked to disease Y, and disease X is a subtype of disease Y.

为什么D 不对那？ 谢谢大家

我认为提干的错误就是"causal oversimplification"

The right answer E points out that there are no causality between the two events.

D uses another "causal oversimplification" reasoning to weaken. I think is not right.

答案是E 我当时没选 但是后来看着看着就有绕进去了

什么叫 CASUAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~在哪里能找到解释

 以下是我的愚见：

文章的意思是，公猫比母猫的size of the interstitial nucleus 在典型情况下要小，而某科学家在实验中发现，那些感染X的公猫的size of the interstitial nucleus 和母猫一样大，而X病在公猫种的感染率不会超过0.05%。结论是：size of the interstitial nucleus 决定了公猫是否感染X .问削弱。则选项应该表明size of the interstitial nucleus 和感染X之间没有必然联系，有两种表明方式：1。直接说没有联系，2.断桥，也就是通过一个假设条件可以推的一个结论说两者没有联系，本题的答案E属于第一种情况。

A。只谈母猫，和结论无关。

B。并没有对结论有任何作用，转而说另一种现象

C。母猫感染了X的size of the interstitial nucleus 也比一般的猫要大，在一定程度上加强了结论中的因果联系，因而有加强的作用

D 有一定的削弱作用，但是由于本题要选THE MOST SERIOUSLY WEAKEN,因此还要看看E的说法。

E causally 是“因果关系地”的意思，意思是说，hypothalamus和一种病Y没有因果联系，而X是Y的subtype ,也就是说包含在Y里。

比较最后两个选项，感觉E的削弱更有力，直接说两者没有关系，比D项陈述一个事实要好一些。这是我的一些主观看法，不知道对你有没有帮助，希望高手进来指点指点！

感觉楼上说的很清楚，E选项之所以能绕进去就是因为CASUALLY这个单词不是很明白。