PrepTest 118, Section 3, Question 5
Cigarette companies claim that manufacturing both low- and(57 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(12 more words not shown)
- ABlood cannot absorb(18 more words not shown)
- BSmokers of the(14 more words not shown)
- CMost nicotine is(15 more words not shown)
- DThe level of(15 more words not shown)
- EWhen taking in(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The smokers used the same number of cigarettes. Why did different nicotine levels in those cigarettes leave them with the same nicotine level in their blood?
Having low- and high-nicotine options gives smokers some choice, though it doesn't give them every imaginable dose. The surprising part is the study's result: among people who smoke one pack per day, the measured level at the end of the day is identical regardless of which kind they smoke.
What we’re looking for
Maybe the body processes nicotine so that an earlier difference disappears by the time of the measurement. Or perhaps the products' advertised differences aren't real. Those are guesses to investigate, not facts we can assume. For this explanation question, we need a reason the end-of-day measurements could match despite the different products. Keep the one-pack-per-day condition fixed.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This gives us a limit on how much nicotine the blood can absorb in a day, and even the lowest-nicotine pack contains enough to reach that limit. A higher-nicotine pack supplies more nicotine without allowing the blood to absorb beyond the cap.
Imagine a cap of 5 units, with the lowest-nicotine pack already supplying 5. A pack supplying 10 doesn't allow 10 units to be absorbed; the same limit still applies. Those are illustrative numbers, not amounts given in the question. The absorption limit explains why changing the cigarettes' nicotine content needn't change the final blood level.
- B
We aren't comparing smokers who use different numbers of cigarettes. The study specifically concerns people who smoke one pack per day. A general tendency for low-nicotine smokers to smoke more doesn't explain the matching results within this one-pack group.
- C
Absorbing most of the nicotine from either product doesn't explain why the final amounts are identical. For example, absorbing 90 percent of 10 units gives twice as much as absorbing 90 percent of 5 units. C gives no reason the different quantities should converge to the same blood level.
- D
The level of tar isn't the measurement we're explaining. A difference in tar might matter for some other comparison, but D doesn't connect it to the identical nicotine levels. We shouldn't invent that connection.
- E
This resembles the idea that nicotine might be processed after smoking stops, but it doesn't go far enough. Two different levels can both decrease steadily and still remain different. We need a reason the levels are the same at the stated measurement time, not merely a reason they decline.
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