PrepTest 131, Section 2, Question 22
A recent study confirms that nutritious breakfasts make(40 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AFew workers in(11 more words not shown)
- BWorkers in the(15 more words not shown)
- CDuring the month(13 more words not shown)
- DWorkers from Plant(16 more words not shown)
- EWorkers in Plant(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A nutritious breakfast could help someone feel more alert and work better. But a correlation could also have another explanation: people who eat well might also sleep well. Let's see what this study actually compared.
Plant A received free nutritious breakfasts and improved its productivity. Plant B didn't receive those breakfasts and didn't improve. What else differed? Perhaps the plants had different management. Perhaps Plant A was conducting performance reviews, giving workers an extra reason to work hard. Or perhaps losses among Plant B's staff had left people grieving. Those are examples of other circumstances that could affect the comparison.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to strengthen the breakfast explanation. My initial thought is to make the comparison more convincing by addressing relevant differences between the plants. I don't yet have one precise fact in mind; we need to inspect what each choice establishes about the study.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This catches a more central question: did Plant B's workers actually go without nutritious breakfasts? Not receiving a free breakfast at work doesn't mean they didn't eat one at home. If both groups ate nutritious breakfasts, the study wouldn't establish the dietary contrast the explanation relies on.
A tells us few Plant B workers consumed nutritious breakfasts during the study. That supports a real difference in the proposed cause, with improved productivity in the group receiving the breakfasts and no improvement in the group largely without them. It doesn't eliminate every other difference, but it makes the central comparison more informative.
- B
A shared start time makes the groups similar in one respect and might remove one concern about the comparison. But it doesn't establish that their breakfast consumption differed. Both groups could start at nine and both eat nutritious breakfasts. A addresses the treatment difference itself rather than this peripheral similarity.
- C
Equal productivity before the study could make the groups look more comparable. But the finding concerns a change: Plant A improved and Plant B didn't. They needn't begin at identical levels for that contrast to matter. C also leaves open whether Plant B workers ate their own nutritious breakfasts. A supplies the more direct support for attributing the different changes to breakfast consumption.
- D
Fewer vacation days introduces another difference that might affect the productivity comparison. It doesn't isolate nutritious breakfasts as the reason for Plant A's improvement. Without knowing how absences affected the figures, we cannot use this fact to confirm the proposed cause.
- E
Plant B could remain more productive overall while Plant A improved more. For example, a worker can improve from a lower starting point without overtaking someone else. E compares the plants' levels during the study, whereas the evidence concerns whether their productivity changed. It doesn't strengthen the breakfast explanation for that change.
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