PrepTest 133, Section 2, Question 22
Food that is very high in fat tends(26 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(14 more words not shown)
- ACanned foods always(19 more words not shown)
- BVegetables that are(20 more words not shown)
- CThe human body(19 more words not shown)
- DSome types of(28 more words not shown)
- EEating at a(26 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Fat-free brownies could still contain something harmful. Taking out one ingredient doesn't settle whether the whole food is healthier.
Imagine an extreme case: the brownies contain a poisonous ingredient. They would still be fat-free, but that wouldn't make them a better choice than the cookies. We don't need to believe these brownies actually contain poison. The example exposes what the argument has left out: health depends on more than this one feature.
The premise is also a tendency. Very fatty foods tend to be unhealthy; we aren't given a rule that every food containing fat is less healthy than every fat-free food. Yet the conclusion confidently ranks these two particular foods.
What we’re looking for
For the parallel-flaw question, keep both pieces. We have a feature generally associated with an unfavorable result. One item has that feature and another doesn't. The author then treats that difference as enough to rank the two, without considering other differences that could determine the result.
Working the answers
- A
The premise already supplies the comparison: canned foods always contain more salt than frozen foods. The canned peas and frozen peas are particular examples of those groups, so the conclusion follows from the stated rule. Our argument has only a general tendency toward unhealthiness, not an absolute rule ranking every high-fat food against every fat-free food.
- BCorrect
Overcooking corresponds to having lots of fat, and having few vitamins corresponds to being unhealthy. The overcooked carrots play the role of the high-fat cookies; the uncooked peas play the role of the fat-free brownies. The conclusion ranks their vitamin content based on that one difference.
But perhaps the carrots started with far more vitamins and still contain more after cooking than the uncooked peas do. A general statement that overcooked vegetables have few vitamins doesn't tell us how many vitamins these uncooked peas have. Just as fat-free doesn't automatically mean healthier, uncooked doesn't automatically mean more vitamins than this other food. The order of the items in the sentences differs, but their logical roles match.
- C
This starts with a requirement: the body needs certain minerals to remain healthy. It then treats water lacking minerals as unhealthy. But one drink needn't supply everything a healthy body needs; those minerals could come from other foods. That's a different error, and there is no comparison between two items based on one having a feature the other lacks.
- D
This starts with some kinds of nuts causing a particular person's throat to itch, then compares how much nut content two desserts have. The overlooked question is which kinds of nuts the desserts contain. More nuts doesn't necessarily mean more of the kinds that affect Roy. Both desserts contain nuts; the argument doesn't contrast having and lacking the feature in the way the brownies-and-cookies argument does.
- E
The premise states that restaurant food costs more than home-prepared food, and the conclusion applies that comparison to the same dishes prepared in those two ways. As in A, the general rule already establishes the ordering. It doesn't merely identify a tendency and then assume that tendency settles a particular comparison.
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