PrepTest 154, Section 1, Question 24
Nuts are high in calories.(40 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(12 more words not shown)
- AThe likelihood of(23 more words not shown)
- BDue to the(17 more words not shown)
- CIf people who(30 more words not shown)
- DOn average, people(17 more words not shown)
- EMost people who(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Eating a high-calorie food doesn't tell us your total daily calories. Someone could eat a small handful of nuts and less of other foods. Perhaps nuts replace a dessert or another snack rather than being added to everything the person already eats. Or perhaps the people who regularly eat nuts exercise more. Any of those possibilities could matter when comparing their likelihood of being overweight with that of people who never eat nuts.
The passage's calorie rule includes “all else being equal.” But are these two groups alike in the other relevant ways? We haven't been told that. So the finding needn't mean that nuts lack calories or that calories have no relation to weight. It may mean that another difference between the groups offsets what first looks like a reason to expect the nut eaters to be heavier.
What we’re looking for
For the resolution question, look for a concrete difference in their overall eating or activity. Merely naming something that could affect weight won't explain the result unless the answer connects it to the people being compared.
Working the answers
- A
Physical activity could explain the pattern if regular nut eaters burned more calories than the other group. But A doesn't say that they do. It gives a general fact about activity and weight without identifying a difference between these groups. Our possible exercise explanation still needs that missing fact.
- B
Eating a sufficiently large quantity of nuts makes someone feel full. That doesn't establish how many calories these people consume before reaching that point, or whether they then eat less overall than people who avoid nuts. Fullness after eating enough calories isn't by itself an explanation of the lower likelihood of being overweight.
- C
This tells people what not to avoid for weight-loss purposes, given a pattern like the one described. But we are trying to explain the pattern, not choose a dietary recommendation. Recommending against avoidance doesn't tell us why regular nut eaters are less likely to be overweight.
- D
Equal average calorie consumption doesn't explain why the groups differ in their likelihood of being overweight. It would make the total-calorie possibility we considered less useful and leave us looking for another difference, such as activity. D doesn't supply that further difference.
- ECorrect
This connects regular nut eating with eating less of foods that stimulate hunger. Most regular nut eaters replace some of those foods with nuts, whose taste doesn't produce that response. As a result, they may be less prompted to keep eating additional food.
Now the calorie content of the nuts isn't the whole story. What the nuts replace, and the resulting urge to eat more, can help explain the overall pattern. We don't need to claim that nut eaters never feel hungry, eat nothing else, or are all thin. E gives a reason this group could be less likely to be overweight despite regularly consuming a high-calorie food.
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