V10-15

Hi,
why do you take ". Pilates is an activity that burns calories" as an assumption..
It is more like an inference...
this is an inference from the conclusion..
And D is clearly providing you the assumption

Hi chetan2u,

That is quite a vague explanation I would say. Even I have the same doubt. I went for B. If option B is given as an option to answer this question, It has to be evaluated for the same. There is no question of taking or not taking it as an assumption . You may be right in saying it is more of a inference but negation test works for this as well. Could anybody provide an explanation that would clarify my doubt.

Thanks,
Vaibhav

Consider the following 3 cases:

1. If you consider that burning calories and losing weight are the same thing, then B is nothing but the conclusion reworded. Hence it cannot be the assumption.

2. If you consider that burning calories and weight loss are not the same thing, and burning calories is one of the things that result in weight loss, then option B is irrelevant because in that case burning calories need not be the reason for weight loss; there could be some other mechanism by which Pilates results in weight loss. (An assumption must satisfy "must be true" condition).

3. If you consider that burning calories and weight loss are not the same thing, and burning calories is the only way of losing weight, then option B is an inference. Pilates causes losing weight, and burning calories is the only way to lose weight - hence Pilates MUST burn calories. (this is the explanation that chetan2u has given above).

In any case option B cannot be an assumption.

Please let me know if you still have doubt.

I chose D as I thought it is the best choice among others. However, I still think that it is may be better if we say something like " if people do not lose weight then they did not do physical activity". Because in this case it's like Pilates causes losing weight, so we should assume that not losing weight > not doing Pilates or physical activity, and can not assume that not pilates or physical activity > not losing weight ? ...

Hi
In the given question:
Pilates is a physical activity that focuses on strengthening the body’s core. A study was conducted with certain members of a Pilates studio. Researchers selected 100 people and instructed them to do Pilates for 30 minutes each day over the course of a month. The group was selected to include people with similar diets, and all the study participants adhered to the instructions. At the end of the study, it was found that the group lost an average of 2.6 pounds. The researchers concluded that Pilates is an effective weight loss treatment.

Which of the following is an assumption made by the researchers in drawing their conclusion?


B. Pilates is an activity that burns calories
D. If the group of 100 people did no physical activity at all, they would not have lost weight

When you say the correct option is D, aren't you assuming that Pilates is THE only physical activity that anyone among these 100 can have?

However, in Option B, burning calories does result in loss of weight. Burning calories is the only way to weight loss, when we talk about physical activities.

Logic:

Pilates is one of the physical activities that strengthens body's core (Premise 1)
Study with 100p, with similar diet (ie., calorie intake is same) and 30 minutes of pilates (reduction in calories)
Loss of ~2.6 pounds
Conclusion: Pilates is an effective weight loss treatment.

Calories is the one that bridges the study results (premise) with the conclusion.
So option B should be the choice.

Option D generalizes the assumption to ALL kinds of physical activities (Eg., walking, running, etc) and does not specifically address the "Pilates" which is the main concept in the passage.

Comments?

aparnaramesh
Hi, burning calories is a result of doing the pilates, the activity of doing the pilates caused weight loss in the study sample, how exactly did pilates cause the weight loss is not what is important for finding out the assumption, for the conclusion, however, the situation might have been different because one would be required to explain the mechanism of weight loss first, and then how pilates do this job well. I am not allowed to assume extra and outside information that burning the calories causes weight loss perhaps there is something else too that causes weight loss and has an association with Pilates, I can not assume something which is not given in the question statement.
For the assumption, I need something that must be true for the conclusion to hold true, doing a physical activity is an effective weight loss treatment, Pilates is an activity that focuses on the strength o the body's core, and the experiment shows gives us evidence to believe the same. Option B stretches the argument a little far and says it's the burning of the calories that causes weight loss, this may be true, but I do not have enough data on hand to say this, neither does this have to be an assumption because the assumption is that the lack of physical activities would not have caused this result.
The absence of a precursor leads to no result situation and hence it must be a true case for the conclusion to hold true.
If No cause, no effect. Proves that it was a necessary assumption.