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In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase

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BeckyRobinsonTPR
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In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   13 Sep 2013, 15:23
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In the past 20 years, there has a been a significant increase in the consumption of specialty dark chocolate products. During this same time period, there has been an increasing number of professional articles regarding the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. Therefore, the increase in specialty dark chocolate consumption must have been caused by consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of dark chocolate.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation for the increase in consumption

A) Milk Chocolate has been proven to have health benefits equal to that of dark chocolate
B) In the past 20 years, professionals have increasingly recommended eating specialty dark chocolates as a way to curb hunger throughout the day
C) On average, people today consume fifty percent more specialty dark chocolates than they did 20 years ago.
D) Dark Chocolate has experienced a drastic increase in price over the past 20 years when compared to other types of chocolate
E) Most people prefer the taste of milk chocolate over that of dark chocolate
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B
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   19 Oct 2013, 01:25
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mohnish104 wrote:
Ramananda: I don't understand isn't curbing hunger part of the health benefits. If anything, B strengthens the argument.


Consider this case, people consumed more apples because of professional articles, which talked about the benefits. The sale of apples thus increased. Now if an answer says a professional but not a professional article recommended the benefits of apple, how is it different? I mean sure if u talk abt the physical presence. Its like an article in a medical journal written by a doctor and the doctor himself aren't the same.


Hey, I think the problem with your reasoning is that you are assuming that Curb hunger=Health benefits.

We have no such information in the passage that states explicitly that to curb hunger, it is part of the whole set of health benefits. There could be several other reasons why professionals are recommended eating dark chocs. For example, To work harder, to pay more attention at work, or to be satisfied with the work they are doing.
So this is just a trick so that we assume that a person is told to curb hunger only because he/she is seeking health benefits.

Hopefully with this outlook, it gets clear why B is weakening the argument. :-D
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   14 Sep 2013, 10:12
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B for me.

Not entirely sure about the line of reasoning, but correct me if i have gone astray.

Gist:The argument says that there are apparent health benefits of consuming dark chocolate and because consumers are aware of this they are consuming more dark chocolate.


Pre-Thinking: The weakening answer would provide us with any alternate reason for the increase of consumption of dark chocolate.

Now answer choice B says that professionals recommend chocolate to curb hunger and not because it has health benefits. Therefore, the choice weakens the argument by presenting an alternate reason on why the consumption of dark chocolate has increased.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   12 Oct 2013, 05:35
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Ramananda: I don't understand isn't curbing hunger part of the health benefits. If anything, B strengthens the argument.


Consider this case, people consumed more apples because of professional articles, which talked about the benefits. The sale of apples thus increased. Now if an answer says a professional but not a professional article recommended the benefits of apple, how is it different? I mean sure if u talk abt the physical presence. Its like an article in a medical journal written by a doctor and the doctor himself aren't the same.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   08 Mar 2014, 05:59
B for me.

the argument says that the increase is as a result of consumer awareness of health benefits.
b: states and alternative reason for this increase: Dark chocolate is recommended, in the last 20 years, as a substitute for a daytime meal - nothing to do with health benefit
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   21 Jun 2015, 11:44
Not really convinced by B, curbing hunger could mean eating less food, ergo taking in less calories. So there is definitely some health benefit discussed here which is responsible for higher consumption of dark chocolates
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   27 Aug 2016, 12:26
bm729 wrote:
Not really convinced by B, curbing hunger could mean eating less food, ergo taking in less calories. So there is definitely some health benefit discussed here which is responsible for higher consumption of dark chocolates

Eating Less Food does not mean taking in less calories.
Here is the difference:
1. You may eat small amount of fat once and fulfill the full-day calorific requirement of your body while feeling hungry at the same time. -> No Excess Calories
2. You may eat fat throughout the day whenever you feel hungry, and exceed the full-day calorific requirement of your body. -> Excess Calories

See the difference above. If you didn't, consider this..
Conclusion says that consumption rose because of health benefits and (D) says that consumption rose because people wanted to curb hunger.

We eat food to curb hunger and we eat Healthy food for health benefits. Therefore, essentially (D) is saying that people are eating specialty dark chocolate as food.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   27 Mar 2017, 08:15
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BeckyRobinsonTPR wrote:
In the past 20 years, there has a been a significant increase in the consumption of specialty dark chocolate products. During this same time period, there has been an increasing number of professional articles regarding the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. Therefore, the increase in specialty dark chocolate consumption must have been caused by consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of dark chocolate.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation for the increase in consumption

A) Milk Chocolate has been proven to have health benefits equal to that of dark chocolate
B) In the past 20 years, professionals have increasingly recommended eating specialty dark chocolates as a way to curb hunger throughout the day
C) On average, people today consume fifty percent more specialty dark chocolates than they did 20 years ago.
D) Dark Chocolate has experienced a drastic increase in price over the past 20 years when compared to other types of chocolate
E) Most people prefer the taste of milk chocolate over that of dark chocolate


Option B changes the cause for the same effect and hence weaken the conclusion.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   27 Mar 2017, 09:25
Option B is correct .

we need to say that health benefit alone is not the reason for increase in the consumption of dark chocolates.

so option B gives an alternate reason for increase in the consumption of dark chocolates, which could be used to curb hunger.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   20 Jun 2017, 17:20
in gmat, most of time, when encountering assumption, or strengthen, or weaken questions, ones do not need to read the question stem because these kinds of questions already imply the target to attack. That is, the conclusion and the main premise.
Rarely, in too complex arguments, or mixing-type question, the question stem will be helpful to find the answer.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   22 Jun 2017, 00:49
Option B gives us different reason fro the increase in consumption of dark chocolates,instead of benefits of eating chocolates people eat to satisfy their hunger .
In the past 20 years, professionals have increasingly recommended eating specialty dark chocolates as a way to curb hunger throughout the day
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In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   11 Nov 2017, 09:27
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In the past 20 years, there has a been a significant increase in the consumption of specialty dark chocolate products. During this same time period, there has been an increasing number of professional articles regarding the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. Therefore, the increase in specialty dark chocolate consumption must have been caused by consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of dark chocolate.

The conclusion of the argument is that the increase in consumption was because of increased awareness from the publication of more articles that there are health benefits associated with consumption.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation for the increase in consumption

A) Milk Chocolate has been proven to have health benefits equal to that of dark chocolate - we don't need to know anything about milk chocolate for this argument so this is irrelevant
B) In the past 20 years, professionals have increasingly recommended eating specialty dark chocolates as a way to curb hunger throughout the day - could it be that people are consuming more because the dark chocolate has the ability to curb hunger and not because of the health benefits publicised by the professional articles? Keep this one for now.
C) On average, people today consume fifty percent more specialty dark chocolates than they did 20 years ago. - we don't need to know the quantity consumed or the increase in consumption so this is irrelevant
D) Dark Chocolate has experienced a drastic increase in price over the past 20 years when compared to other types of chocolate - we don't need to know what changes in price there has been so this is irrelevant
E) Most people prefer the taste of milk chocolate over that of dark chocolate - again we don't need to know what people think about milk chocolate so this is irrelevant

B is the only viable answer.
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   18 Jun 2021, 00:26
In the past 20 years, there has a been a significant increase in the consumption of specialty dark chocolate products. During this same time period, there has been an increasing number of professional articles regarding the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. Therefore, the increase in specialty dark chocolate consumption must have been caused by consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of dark chocolate.

Conclusion: consumers’ awareness of the health benefits --> the increase in consumption

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation for the increase in consumption

A) Milk Chocolate has been proven to have health benefits equal to that of dark chocolate
Irrelevant

B) In the past 20 years, professionals have increasingly recommended eating specialty dark chocolates as a way to curb hunger throughout the day
Correct answer.
People consume more dark chocolate because of "curb hunger'", not because of "consumers’ awareness of the health benefits"

C) On average, people today consume fifty percent more specialty dark chocolates than they did 20 years ago.
Irrelevant

D) Dark Chocolate has experienced a drastic increase in price over the past 20 years when compared to other types of chocolate
Irrelevant

E) Most people prefer the taste of milk chocolate over that of dark chocolate
Irrelevant
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink] New post   20 Jul 2022, 17:54
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Re: In the past 20 year, there has been a significant increase [#permalink]
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