getgyan wrote:
Cigarette companies claim that manufacturing both low- and high-nicotine cigarettes allows smokers to choose how much nicotine they want. However, a recent study has shown that the levels of nicotine found in the blood of smokers who smoke one pact of cigarettes per day are identical at the end of a day's worth of smoking, whatever the level of nicotine in the cigarettes they smoke.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the finding of nicotine study?
A. Blood cannot absorb more nicotine per day than that found in the smoke from a package of the lowest-nicotine cigarettes available.
B. Smokers of the lowest-nicotine cigarettes available generally smoke more cigarettes per day than smokers of high-nicotine cigarettes.
C. Most nicotine is absorbed into the blood of a smoker even if it is delivered in smaller quantities.
D. The level of tar in cigarettes is higher in low-nicotine cigarettes than it is in some high-nicotine cigarettes.
E. When taking in nicotine by smoking cigarettes is discontinued, the level of nicotine in the blood decreases steadily
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
The correct answer choice is (A).
In rough terms, the paradox in the stimulus is that smokers of one pack of low-nicotine cigarettes have an identical nicotine level at the end of the day as smokers of one pack of high-nicotine cigarettes. This similarity must be explained by a similarity, not a difference.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer. The answer choice indicates that there is a similarity in the blood such that the maximum amount of nicotine absorbed is identical for everyone. Because the maximum amount of nicotine absorbed per day is equal to the nicotine in a pack of low-nicotine cigarettes, each person absorbs the amount of nicotine equal to the low- nicotine pack regardless of the type of cigarette smoked. Additional nicotine is not absorbed into the blood of smokers of the high-nicotine brand. Since this answer explains the paradox, this is the correct answer.
Answer choice (B): Read closely! The stimulus is specifically about smokers who "smoke one pack of numbers stimulus cigarettes per day". This answer discusses smoking different number of cigarettes and thus it fails to meet the circumstances in the stimulus.
Answer choice (C): This answer confuses the issue because it indicates that most nicotine is absorbed into the system. From this fact one would expect that those smoking high-nicotine cigarettes would have higher nicotine levels than low-nicotine cigarette smokers.
Answer choice (D): The stimulus does not address the level of tar in cigarettes, nor can we make any judgment about how tar affects nicotine levels.
Answer choice (E): This would apply to any smoker, and as this addresses an effect that occurs after smoking is stopped, it does not help us understand why the nicotine rose to identical levels regardless of the kind of cigarette smoked.
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