Leona: If the average consumption of eggs in the United States were cut in half, an estimated 5,000 lives might be saved each year.

Thomas: How can that be? That would mean that if people adopt this single change in diet for ten years, the population ten years from now will be greater by 50,000 people than it otherwise would have been.
Which one of the following is a statement that Leona could offer Thomas to clarify her own claim and to address the point he has made?

(A) It is possible for the population to grow by 5,000 people for every year if the base year chosen for purposes of comparison is one with unusually low population growth.
(B) It is accurate to say that 5,000 lives have been saved as long as 5,000 people who would have died in a given year as a result of not changing their diet, did not do so-even if they died for some other reason.
(C) If egg consumption were reduced by more than half, the estimated number of lives saved each year could be even more than 5,000.
(D) The actual rate of population growth depends not only on the birth rate, but also on changes in life expectancy.
(E) For the average consumption of eggs to be cut by half, many individual consumers would have to cut their own consumption by much more than half.

I was completely lost on this one.....Please help me understand the darn question..

B for me!

Others looks either irrelevent or out of scope

I think B is the answer.

Nitin

Thomas' argument makes the assumption that the 5000 people who would be saved by not eating eggs will not die due to any other reasons. Hence the population will increase by 5000 * 10 (50,000) after 10 years.

B paraphrased: Even if the 5000 people who were saved by not eating eggs died due to other reasons, you can count them as saved. (Thus the population will not increase by 50,000 after 10 years even if 5000 people were counted as saved every year)

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