PrepTest 142, Section 2, Question 8
Marcia: Not all vegetarian diets lead to nutritional(62 more words not shown)
Theodora's reply to Marcia's argument(11 more words not shown)
- Ais directed toward(8 more words not shown)
- Bignores the results(6 more words not shown)
- Ctakes for granted(11 more words not shown)
- Duses the word(15 more words not shown)
- Etakes for granted(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Marcia says a vegetarian diet can provide adequate nutrition. Theodora responds as though Marcia said vegetarianism could never lead to a nutritional problem. Those are very different claims.
A person could eat a well-planned vegetarian diet and get the needed proteins and minerals. Another vegetarian could eat poorly and miss important nutrients. Both possibilities fit Marcia's point: not all vegetarian diets cause deficiencies. She doesn't need to claim that every vegetarian eats well.
What we’re looking for
Theodora also changes the subject from the nutritional possibilities of the diet to the economic effects of widespread vegetarianism. Even if meat-industry workers lost their jobs and couldn't afford enough food, that wouldn't show that a nutritionally adequate vegetarian diet is impossible. For the flaw question, look for the reply's failure to address what Marcia actually claimed.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Theodora attacks the stronger claim that vegetarianism cannot lead to nutritional deficiencies. Marcia only says that deficiencies are avoidable and cites research showing that nonanimal foods can supply the required nutrients. Theodora's poverty scenario could occur while Marcia's claim remained true, so it doesn't refute her.
- B
Simply failing to discuss the study isn't the precise problem. Theodora could accept its nutritional findings and still predict that job losses would leave some people unable to afford adequate food. Those claims can coexist. The important mistake is treating that economic prediction as a refutation of Marcia's more limited claim.
- C
Theodora proposes widespread vegetarianism as a cause of industry collapse, not the only possible cause. A recession could also make meat businesses fail without contradicting the reply. Nothing here requires the assumption that collapse is impossible unless most people become vegetarians.
- D
Both speakers use “diet” to mean what a person eats. One discusses whether those foods can supply nutrients; the other discusses whether someone could afford them. Different concerns about a diet don't amount to two different meanings of the word.
- E
The workers needn't become vegetarians for Theodora's scenario to work. They could lose income, continue wanting meat, and be unable to afford adequate meals. The proposed route to nutritional deficiency is poverty, not a required change in those workers' eating preferences.
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