Critical Reasoning (CR) | Re: Healthy lungs produce a natural antibiotic that protects them from inf

Understanding the argument -
Healthy lungs produce a natural antibiotic that protects them from infection by routinely killing harmful bacteria on airway surfaces. - Fact
People with cystic fibroses, however, are unable to fight off such bacteria, even though their lungs produce normal amounts of the antibiotic. - "however" and "even though" introduces contrast. Fact
Since the fluid on airway surfaces in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis has an abnormally high salt concentration, scientists hypothesize that in high salt environments, the antibiotic becomes ineffective at killing harmful bacteria.- supporting premise + Main conclusion

Option Elimninaiton - Weakener
The scope of the argument is to weaken the conclusion that "in high salt environments, the antibiotic becomes ineffective at killing harmful bacteria." Meaning its the high salt environment that makes the antibiotic ineffective. We need to weaken this cause. X causes Y. Way to weaken
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Statistics : Posted by Raman109 • on 23 Feb 2009, 15:41 • Replies 9 • Views 15518

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