LR Drill Set 4, Question 9
Recent evidence shows that, taken regularly, vitamin C(52 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(11 more words not shown)
- APeople who use(23 more words not shown)
- BThe more fit(17 more words not shown)
- CPsychological factors are(8 more words not shown)
- DMost people who(14 more words not shown)
- EPeople who buy(22 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The ingredients are almost the same. Are the people taking them the same?
We can accept both facts in the passage: the brands have virtually identical chemical compositions, and people using cheaper brands get sick less often and recover faster. The second fact doesn't establish that something about the cheaper pill itself causes the difference. There could be a difference between the people using the products or between the ways they use them.
Maybe the people buying cheaper supplements exercise more or have healthier diets. Maybe they take a different amount. Those are possibilities, not facts we can assume. Each would give us something to investigate besides the chemical composition.
What we’re looking for
The question asks us to explain the different outcomes. A useful answer has to connect a possible explanation to the cheap-brand versus expensive-brand comparison. A fact about vitamin users generally won't do that work unless it tells us why these two groups differ.
Working the answers
- A
This compares supplement users with nonusers. Our puzzle compares two groups who both use supplements: buyers of cheaper and more expensive brands. Even if the average user does no better than the average nonuser, we still need to explain the difference between the two groups of users.
- B
Fitness initially sounds promising because it could affect the results. But which buyers are more fit? B never says. If both groups are equally fit, this relationship wouldn't explain why one group fares better. We would need the additional fact that cheaper-brand buyers have the relevant fitness advantage.
- C
Psychological factors could matter, but we aren't told that they differ between these groups. Both groups might have the same relevant attitudes or expectations. Giving psychological factors equal importance doesn't explain a particular difference without connecting those factors to the people whose results differ.
- D
Most supplement users taking other products doesn't tell us which group takes more of them or gets more benefit from them. The cheaper-brand and expensive-brand buyers could use the same additional supplements. D describes something common among users without accounting for the contrast we need to explain.
- ECorrect
The cheaper-brand buyers take vitamin C more regularly. Now return to the opening statement: vitamin C can help prevent illness when taken regularly. The answer supplies a relevant difference in use that can account for the different health outcomes despite nearly identical ingredients.
This isn't the fitness explanation we considered, but it follows the same approach of looking beyond the pill's composition. The brands can be chemically alike while the groups use them differently. We don't need to invent a different ingredient or prove that every individual responds in the same way.
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