It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who...

Passage Analysis:

Argument Flow:

The argument starts with a well-known correlation (marriage = longer life), then immediately challenges the obvious causal interpretation by proposing that the people who get married were already healthier to begin with.

Main Conclusion:

Marriage doesn't cause people to live longer - the correlation exists because healthier people are more likely to get married in the first place.

Logical Structure:

This is a classic 'correlation vs causation' argument. The author uses the premise that people about to marry have fewer unhealthy habits to explain why we see the marriage-longevity correlation without marriage actually causing the longer lifespan.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Strengthen - We need to find information that makes the author's conclusion more believable. The author argues that marriage itself doesn't cause longer life; rather, people who are about to marry are already healthier to begin with.

Precision of Claims

The argument makes specific claims about healthy habits (smoking and drinking) among people about to marry versus the general population. We need to be precise about timing (before marriage vs during marriage) and the causal direction (health habits leading to marriage readiness vs marriage causing health changes).

Strategy

To strengthen this argument, we need evidence that supports the idea that healthier people self-select into marriage, rather than marriage making people healthier. We should look for information that shows the health differences exist BEFORE marriage occurs, or that demonstrates marriage itself doesn't create the health benefits.