mba1382 wrote:
Most doctors recommend that pregnant women eat a nutritious diet to promote the health of their babies. However, most babies who are born to women who ate nutritious diets while pregnant still develop at least one medical problem in their first year.
Which one of the following, if true, does most to resolve the apparent discrepancy in the information above?
(A) Women who regularly eat a nutritious diet while pregnant tend to eat a nutritious diet while breast-feeding.
(B) Most of the babies born to women who did not eat nutritious diet while pregnant develop no serious medical problems later in childhood.
(C) Babies of women who did not eat nutritious diets while pregnant tend to have more medical problems in their first year than do other babies.
(D) Medical problems that develop in the first year of life tend to be more serious than those that develop later in childhood.
(E) Many of the physicians who initially recommended that pregnant women consume nutritious diets have only recently reaffirmed their recommendation.
Thought Process:
Question Type: Resolve Paradox.
Passage analysis.The passage states a recommendation by most doctors for a purpose.
Recommendation: All pregnant women should eat a nutritious diet
Purpose: To promote the health of their babies.
An
observation follows:
More than 50% of babies born to women who had a nutritious diet while pregnant still are affected by at least one medical problem in their first year.
Paradox: The recommendation promotes the babies' heath but most of those babies whose mothers followed the instruction still developed at least one medical issue as an infant.
Possible Resolutions:1. Most babies whose mothers had a nutritious diet while pregnant developed lesser medical issues compared to the other group. So they were comparatively healthier. Hence the recommendation still holds.
2.Most mothers switch back to unhealthy lifestyle options once the baby is born, cancelling out many beneficial effects the nutritious diet may have contributed to the baby. Here the recommendation is not a standalone statement and has to be followed along with other recommendations as well. If others were not followed that affects the result of the given recommendation. Thus, it can provide an explanation for infant medical issues faced by this group.
3. The effect of better nutrition during pregnancy shows up only after the first year of life of the baby. In that case also, medical issues during the first year will not be counted as a discrepancy.
Option Analysis(A) Women who regularly eat a nutritious diet while pregnant tend to eat a nutritious diet while breast-feeding.
This cannot explain medical issues of the baby.(B) Most of the babies born to women who did not eat nutritious diet while pregnant develop no serious medical problems later in childhood.
This statement does not talk about the first year of life, but later childhood. We do not know how the babies of women who had nutritious diets while pregnant fared during that period. (C) Babies of women who did not eat nutritious diets while pregnant tend to have more medical problems in their first year than do other babies.This statement is in line with our prethought solution #1. Hence it forms the right answer.(D) Medical problems that develop in the first year of life tend to be more serious than those that develop later in childhood.
This does not address the paradox.(E) Many of the physicians who initially recommended that pregnant women consume nutritious diets have only recently reaffirmed their recommendation.
This does not address the discrepancy. If anything, it adds to the discrepancy by affirming that the recommendation is correct. _________________