PrepTest 131, Section 2, Question 14
At one sitting, a typical doughnut eater consumes(78 more words not shown)
The argument depends on assuming(5 more words not shown)
- AThe calories and(22 more words not shown)
- BMost bagel eaters(13 more words not shown)
- CEating bagels instead(8 more words not shown)
- DThe typical doughnut(14 more words not shown)
- EMost typical doughnut(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Four doughnuts supply 680 calories. One plain bagel supplies 500. Adding spreads can bring the bagel up to the doughnuts' range, but does the typical bagel eater actually add that much?
Perhaps the typical person eats a plain bagel. Then the bagel stays at 500 calories rather than reaching the doughnut total. The argument moves from what spreads can add to a claim about what people typically consume. I'd want to know how much spread those bagel eaters use.
What we’re looking for
The necessary-assumption question asks what the calorie comparison depends on. Keep the conclusion's scope in view: total calories at one sitting. The passage gives fat figures too, but the final claim isn't about overall health, what people know about their food, or every nutritional difference.
Working the answers
- A
Equal calorie totals and equal health effects are different claims. The argument concerns how many calories the two typical servings contain. It doesn't need those calories or their accompanying fat to have identical effects on the people eating them.
- B
Awareness doesn't determine the calorie total. Bagel eaters could know exactly how many calories they consume or have no idea, and we would still need to compare the food they actually eat. B doesn't supply an assumption needed for that comparison.
- C
The argument doesn't conclude that the foods have identical health benefits. Two servings could have similar calorie counts and differ in other nutritionally relevant ways. 'No real health benefit' goes beyond the narrow calorie claim.
- DCorrect
This raises the corresponding question on the doughnut side. What if those eaters add something too, such as dunking their doughnuts in chocolate? A bagel with spread might go from 500 to 600 calories while the doughnuts go from 680 to 900. Then bringing the bagel closer to the plain doughnuts' figure wouldn't bring it close to what the doughnut eater actually consumes.
The comparison relies on treating the stated doughnut total as the full total, without added substances increasing it. This wasn't the spread assumption I first predicted, but it protects the other side of the same comparison.
- E
The same person could eat bagels on some occasions and doughnuts on others. That overlap doesn't tell us what either typical serving contains, and separating the two populations wouldn't establish equal calorie totals. The argument doesn't depend on the groups being different people.
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