People love chocolate for its taste and health benefits, but not many

Question

People love chocolate for its taste and health benefits, but not many are aware that chocolate can be quite toxic when fed to dogs. Oblivious to this fact, pet owners frequently feed their dogs with chocolate and soon after, rush their pets to veterinary clinics. However, over the past three years, the number of such cases has gone down drastically in Pupper Town. Clearly, pet owners in this place must have become more aware of the fact that chocolate must not be fed to dogs since____________.

(A)nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets
(B)most breeds of dogs are allergic to chocolate and other products that contain cocoa extracts from which chocolate is made
(C)any treatment provided to pets to address a disease or a condition requires expert medical intervention that cannot be provided at home
(D)the number of veterinary clinics in Pupper Town has not reduced significantly over the past three years
(E)the number of pets in Pupper Town has not gone up significantly over the past three years

apoorvsingh · Accepted Answer

I chose A to but on introspection, I did the mistake of just focusing on the last statement.

However, over the past three years, the number of such cases has gone down drastically in Pupper Town. Clearly, pet owners in this place must have become more aware of the fact that chocolate must not be fed to dogs since____________.

if you read this sentence. the author is expecting to be sure that pet owners are not taking their dogs to clinic because they have understood since ( here comes the proof of less cases ) it can't be treated at home.

Hope this helps.

MartyMurray · Answer

People love chocolate for its taste and health benefits, but not many are aware that chocolate can be quite toxic when fed to dogs. Oblivious to this fact, pet owners frequently feed their dogs with chocolate and soon after, rush their pets to veterinary clinics. However, over the past three years, the number of such cases has gone down drastically in Pupper Town. Clearly, pet owners in this place must have become more aware of the fact that chocolate must not be fed to dogs since____________.

The passage first presents some general facts about what occurs in cases in which dogs have been fed chocolate.

It then presents a fact about Pupper Town specifically:

over the past three years, the number of such cases has gone down drastically in Pupper Town

It then presents a conclusion that follows from that fact:

Clearly, pet owners in this place must have become more aware of the fact that chocolate must not be fed to dogs

Then, we see the following:

since __________."

In this type of context, "since" has a meaning similar to "because" and can be considered a support marker.

Accordingly, the correct answer that fills the blank must provide support for the conclusion that "pet owners in this place must have become more aware of the fact that chocolate must not be fed to dogs."

(A) nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets

This choice is interesting since it could be considered a reason to believe that people have learned to take care of all kinds of pets, including dogs, since information on how to take care of pets is widely available.

At the same time, this is not a strong correct answer since it indicates only what people CAN do.

So, it doesn't clearly indicate that people in Pupper Town specifically MUST HAVE become more aware of the issues related to feeding chocolate to dogs.

So, we'll keep this choice and look for a better one.

(B) most breeds of dogs are allergic to chocolate and other products that contain cocoa extracts from which chocolate is made

This choice provides information on why dogs get sick if they eat chocolate, but it doesn't indicate that people in Pupper Town have become aware that dogs become sick in that way.

Eliminate.

(C) any treatment provided to pets to address a disease or a condition requires expert medical intervention that cannot be provided at home

This choice is interesting.

If people cannot treat a serious disease or condition themselves at home, then we have confirmation that the reason why there are fewer cases of dogs being rushed to clinics because of health issues related to eating chocolate isn't that people have been treating the dogs themselves.

So, by serving to eliminate that alternative possibility, this choice could provide a reason to believe that the reason for the reduction in such cases is that people have become aware that chocolate is toxic to dogs.

So, we could decide that this choice supports the conclusion.

At the same time, there's an issue with this choice, which is that the passage does not define "cases" as cases of dogs taken to clinics because they ate chocolate.

Rather, the passage mentions only "the number of such cases." So, "cases" could conceivably be simply cases of dogs that have eaten chocolate and rather than cases of dogs taken to clinics for that reason.

Thus, this choice works only if we presume that "such cases" are cases in which dogs were rushed to clinics.

So, does this choice work?

While I believe the question would be better written if it were clearer that "cases" are cases in which dogs were rushed to clinics, we can look in the passage to see what "such cases" refers to. Doing so, we see that what precedes "such cases" is "pet owners frequently feed their dogs with chocolate and soon after, rush their pets to veterinary clinics."

So, I think we can safely presume that "such cases" refers to cases in which dogs have been rushed to clinics because of health issues related to eating chocolate.

Thus, we can safely decide that choice supports the conclusion.

Keep.

(D) the number of veterinary clinics in Pupper Town has not reduced significantly over the past three years

This choice has no effect on the argument.

After all, regardless of how many clinics there are, dogs who get sick would still be rushed to whatever clinics are available, and the argument is about the number of "cases," not the number of cases per clinic.

So, information on the number of clinics doesn't indicate why the number of cases has decreased.

Eliminate.

(E) the number of pets in Pupper Town has not gone up significantly over the past three years

This choice goes in the wrong direction.

After all, if the number of pets had "gone up" AND there were fewer cases, then we'd have reason to believe that the incidence of chocolate poisoning of dogs had indeed decreased in Pupper Town. After all, in that case, there would be some reason to believe that the reason for the decrease in the number of cases was not a decrease in the number of dogs.

On the other hand, the information that the number of pets "has not gone up" doesn't help to support the conclusion since, given that information, the number of dogs could very well have decreased. In that case, a decrease in the number of dogs, rather than increased awareness, could be the reason for the decrease in cases of dogs experiencing problems related to eating chocolate.

Eliminate.

Thus, since (C) clearly supports the conclusion whereas (A) indicates only that people CAN learn about taking care of dogs but doesn't indicate that they HAVE become aware of the issues related to chocolate, we can choose (C) as correct.

Correct answer:   C

apoorvsingh · Answer

So I got it wrong but here is my explaination.

I chose A because I just read the line with the blank and it perfectly made sense unless you focused on the word Since.

Now here is the catch, the statement with blank is trying to find the reason to conclude that because the number of cases have gone down, it means that the owners have understood that dogs should not be fed the chocolate.

C proves that if they would have not learnt the fact the cases would have gone up as it can't be treated at home.

Posted from my mobile device

suchita2409 · Answer

charles  
Can u please help with this one.
How come answer is C?

Posted from my mobile device

apoorvsingh · Answer

Suchita, what did you choose and why?

suchita2409 · Answer

Hi Apoorv

I chose A
Because its the only option that says that dogs shouldn't be fed chocolates

Posted from my mobile device

suchita2409 · Answer

Many thanks Apoorv.
My bad I didn't focus on "since"

apoorvsingh · Answer

I am glad it helped. Hate to say this but you can Kudos if it helped :p

mk96 · Answer

@GmatNinja- boss can you please provide an explanation for this? I have been beating my head too much around this?
Thank you very much for the help in advance.

SahilGera18 · Answer

HI

Please explain why not it can be B?

TIA

Bambi2021 · Answer

If they must seek professional help every time it happens, then every case is a case counted at a clinic.
So less cases means that less dogs have been taken to nearby clinics, implying that dog owners are now more aware of the risks, likely from own experience or advice from other pet owners.

Therefore C.

With A, even if more tutorials are available, the number of cases could not be easily counted if medical treatment was possible at home. The correlation between more tuts and less cases would be harder to make, even if it existed.

Posted from my mobile device

Neeraj5 · Answer

Can anyone explain why not B?
It will be of great help

shubhim20 · Answer

KarishmaB  ,  Bunuel   MartyMurray  why not D?

PSKhore · Answer

The conclusion is that the number of cases went down. If   any treatment provided to pets to address a disease or a condition requires expert medical intervention that cannot be provided at home  is true, it means that every pet owner went to the vet clinic and became aware of the fact chocolate can be quite toxic when fed to dogs, and so the number of cases went down.

(A)nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets
 Talks about taking care but not this specific case related to chocolates
 
(B)most breeds of dogs are allergic to chocolate and other products that contain cocoa extracts from which chocolate is made
 Irrelevant

(D)the number of veterinary clinics in Pupper Town has not reduced significantly over the past three years
  Irrelevant

(E)the number of pets in Pupper Town has not gone up significantly over the past three years
  Sounds good to base the stats on but again fails to consider what might've caused the number of cases to go down

PSKhore · Answer

The conclusion is that the number of cases went down. If any treatment provided to pets to address a disease or a condition requires expert medical intervention that cannot be provided at home is true, it means that every pet owner went to the vet clinic and became aware of the fact chocolate can be quite toxic when fed to dogs, and so the number of cases went down.

(A)nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets
 Talks about taking care but not this specific case related to chocolates

(B)most breeds of dogs are allergic to chocolate and other products that contain cocoa extracts from which chocolate is made
 Irrelevant

(D)the number of veterinary clinics in Pupper Town has not reduced significantly over the past three years
 Irrelevant

(E)the number of pets in Pupper Town has not gone up significantly over the past three years
 Sounds good to base the stats on but again fails to consider what might've caused the number of cases to go down

licrolicro · Answer

(A) Nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets.
This could explain increased awareness, as pet owners might have learned from these tutorials that chocolate is toxic to dogs. This supports the conclusion.

(B) Most breeds of dogs are allergic to chocolate and other products that contain cocoa extracts from which chocolate is made.
This is just a restatement of why chocolate is bad for dogs, not an explanation for why cases have decreased. It doesn’t support the conclusion about increased awareness.

(C) Any treatment provided to pets to address a disease or a condition requires expert medical intervention that cannot be provided at home.
This is irrelevant to why cases of chocolate toxicity have decreased. It doesn’t address awareness.

(D) The number of veterinary clinics in Pupper Town has not reduced significantly over the past three years.
This rules out the possibility that the decrease in cases is due to fewer clinics (which could make it harder to report or treat cases). This indirectly supports the idea that the decrease is due to increased awareness, but it’s not as direct as (A).

(E) The number of pets in Pupper Town has not gone up significantly over the past three years.
This rules out the possibility that the decrease in cases is due to fewer pets overall. This also indirectly supports the awareness explanation, but like (D), it’s not as strong as (A).

The best choice is (A), as it directly provides a reason for increased awareness (availability of self-tutorials), which explains the decrease in cases.
Final Answer:

(A) nowadays there are many self-tutorials available on the internet on how to take care of pets

People love chocolate for its taste and health benefits, but not many

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People love chocolate for its taste and health benefits, but not many

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