PrepTest 131, Section 2, Question 11
Medical research has established that the Beta Diet(37 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(14 more words not shown)
- AOn average, people(29 more words not shown)
- BThe Beta Diet(14 more words not shown)
- CPeople of average(21 more words not shown)
- DThe Beta Diet(13 more words not shown)
- ERecent research has(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A healthier diet, yet less healthy people. Are we comparing similar groups?
Someone who has followed this diet for several decades may be older than many people eating a conventional diet. Perhaps the Beta Diet helps people live longer, leaving a group of 90-year-olds to compare with a conventional-diet group of 40-year-olds. The older group could be in worse health overall even if its diet helps. We aren't told those are the ages; it's a possible reason the groups might differ.
What we’re looking for
That is the kind of explanation I want for the apparent conflict. We must accommodate both the diet's health benefit and the poor health of its long-term followers. Showing that the diet helps isn't enough; we need to explain why the people following it can nevertheless be less healthy.
Working the answers
- A
More healthful habits would make the result harder to understand. These people would have both a healthier diet and other advantages, yet would still be more likely to be in poor health. A supplies another reason to expect better health without explaining the observed disadvantage.
- BCorrect
This gives us a different reason the groups aren't comparable: people primarily use the diet because they have a condition that harms their overall health. Imagine a diet used by people with cancer. It could improve their health relative to how they would fare without it, yet leave them in worse health than people who don't have cancer. The disease, rather than the diet, could explain that difference. B doesn't specify cancer, but it supplies exactly that sort of underlying condition.
- C
This reinforces the claim that the Beta Diet is healthier. It doesn't explain why its long-term followers are more likely to be in poor health. Confirming one side of the puzzle leaves the other side unexplained.
- D
Different people benefiting by different amounts doesn't tell us why Beta Diet followers are less healthy overall than conventional-diet followers. Even a minor benefit is a benefit. We still need something about the groups or their circumstances that explains the poor-health comparison.
- E
There could be an even healthier third diet. The question compares the Beta Diet with a conventional diet, not with the best diet imaginable. Unless we know the conventional group follows the newly described diet, E doesn't address the comparison we need to explain.
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