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.
正确答案是E，小女选的A。
我个人理解，文中结论:male cats 之所以得这种病，和the size of the interstitial nucleus有关。 条件：male cats had interstitial nuclei that were as large as those generally found in female cats. 我选的是A，理由：因为female cats 的sizeof the interstitial nucleus 和得病的male cats的 size差不多大，如果female cat 并没有得这种病，那么说明跟size 无关。。狒狒对A的解释是：讨论female cat 是irrelevant, 那文中引入female cat 的用意是什么？都是cat, 为什么会无关？？作者: nancy5130 时间: 2013-3-14 19:52
而E里面出现了一个hypothalamus，乍一看觉得很陌生，怎么突然来个这个，但是看看材料首句“The interstitial nucleus, a sub-region of the brain’s hypothalamus, is typically smaller for male cats than for female cats.”它是 interstitial nucleus的同位语呢，所以E其实是个同义改写，是对结论的否定。（可以看成是h.否定Y.而h.→i. n.; Y.→X.）
不论是阅读还是逻辑，我觉得这种同义改写的是正确选项的可能性很高啊。作者: henguc 时间: 2013-3-17 06:52
Please notice the conclusion： Thus, the size of the interstitial nucleus determines whether or not male cats can contract disease X.
The conclusion is talking about the relationship between the size and the probablity that male cats would contract X, instead of cats would contract X. So it has noting to do with whether female cats that have the similar size would contract X.
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