PrepTest 105, Section 4, Question 3
Nutritionist: A study revealed that although most adults(81 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- ABoth men and(15 more words not shown)
- BIn the study,(19 more words not shown)
- CWomen in the(13 more words not shown)
- DMen in the(18 more words not shown)
- EMost men in(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
These people think their diets match the guidelines better than they actually do. That difference between self-assessment and measured intake is the main point I notice.
I might wonder whether the guidelines themselves are sensible, but that isn't needed to follow the study. We can accept the reported comparison without declaring that everyone is unhealthy.
Both groups underestimate fat and overestimate their intake of most other foods. The passage then gives more detail: women miss the recommendations in most categories, particularly fruits and vegetables; men meet the bread recommendation but fall short in the other categories described.
What we’re looking for
For the most-strongly-supported question, my broad prediction is that the participants misjudge how closely they follow the recommendations. But an answer might focus on one narrower fact. We'll need to keep track of three different things: the recommended amount, the amount people actually eat, and what they think they eat.
Working the answers
- A
“Every food category” goes beyond the information given. The passage says they overestimate most other foods, not all of them. It also doesn't say whether men accurately estimated their bread intake. Meeting the bread recommendation describes their actual consumption; it doesn't by itself prove either accurate or inaccurate self-assessment. A demands an error in every category that we can't establish.
- B
We have no count showing how many men and women were aware of a shortfall. The differences in their actual diets don't tell us which group had more people who recognized their own noncompliance. That requires information about awareness, not merely consumption.
- C
Knowing that the men met the bread recommendation doesn't tell us how well either group knew that recommendation. The passage doesn't compare men's and women's awareness of the recommended bread intake. C adds that comparison.
- D
This compares estimated fruit-and-vegetable intake with actual intake, not actual intake with the recommended amount. Those are different comparisons. Men could eat fewer vegetables than recommended while thinking they eat more than they really do.
The passage describes overestimation for most nonfat foods, so it gives us no basis for this claim that the fruit-and-vegetable estimates were significantly lower than actual intake. The problem isn't just the word “significantly”; we haven't established that direction of error for these foods at all.
- ECorrect
The passage says the men met the bread recommendation but fell short in the other categories. Fruits and vegetables are among those categories. So this narrower claim about the men's fruit-and-vegetable intake is supported directly. We don't have to resolve which sex was more aware of the guidelines or prove that every estimate was wrong.
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