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Premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than

WillGetIt

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10 Jul 2015, 03:27

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Premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than premature babies who do not. Even when all the babies drink the same amount of milk, the massaged babies gain more weight than do the unmassaged babies. This is puzzling because a more active person generally requires a greater food intake to maintain or gain weight.

Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?

(A) Increased activity leads to increased levels of hunger, especially when food intake is not also increased.

(B) Massage increases premature babies’ curiosity about their environment, and curiosity leads to increased activity.

(C) Increased activity causes the intestines of premature babies to mature more quickly, enabling the babies to digest and absorb more of the nutrients in the milk they drink.

(D) Massage does not increase the growth rate of babies over one year old, if the babies had not been previously massaged.

(E) Premature babies require a daily intake of nutrients that is significantly higher than that required by babies who were not born prematurely.

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GMATNinja

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01 Mar 2018, 15:27

adkikani

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Is my thought process correct:

Paradox: Massaged babies have more weight than non massaged ones
even though they consume same milk as other types of babies.

Why is this surprising? Massaged babies are more active so ideally they should experience a weight loss per author.

Why does NONE of answer choices talk about weight in this Q?

Quote:

Choice (C) may not specifically refer to weight, but it is indeed related to weight.

Consider two premature babies who consume the same amount of food. If the intestines of one of the babies are more mature than those of the other baby, then the baby with the more mature intestines will absorb more nutrients from the same quantity of food (i.e. the other baby might lose more nutrients to waste).

The baby that absorbs more nutrients will surely gain more weight, so (C) resolves the discrepancy. (And I'm going to pour my three-month-old a big, fat bottle of milk now.

)

I hope that helps!

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WillGetIt

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25 Nov 2015, 03:58

Hello,

A specifies that:

Increased activity leads to increased levels of hunger, especially when food intake is not also increased

Does this choice resolve the paradox regarding surprising linkage between the "Increased physical activity" and "Increased weight". No...

If the more active babies are more hungry, then how they are gaining more weight?? Do they are eating too much (No, as the argument mentions same amount of milk).

So this choice is unable to resolve the paradox.

Hope it helps!!

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Abhishek009

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25 Nov 2015, 08:05

WillGetIt

Premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than premature babies who do not.

Level of activeness of Premature babies

receive regular massages > doesn't receive regular massages

WillGetIt

Even when all the babies drink the same amount of milk, the massaged babies gain more weight than do the unrnassaged babies.

Consumption of milk

Premature babies who receive regular massages = Premature babies who doesn't receive regular massages

Weight gain

Premature babies who receive regular massages > Premature babies who doesn't receive regular massages

WillGetIt

This is puzzling because a more active person generally requires a greater food intake to maintain or gain weight.

Premature babies who receive regular massages ----> more active -----> requires a greater food intake ----> to maintain or gain weight.

This literally boils down the issue to the fact that

Premature babies who receive regular massages and are thus active , requires the same amount of food intake as that of Premature babies who doesn't receive regular massages , yet gains weight more quickly.

So, we can say that food is not the factor that is causing the weight gain , but message is the contributing factor.

Comparing (A) and (C) -

A - Talks about hunger and same food intake.

C - Talks about increased activity resulting in absorption of more nutrients in the milk they drink.

Hence IMHO (C)

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adkikani

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23 Feb 2018, 21:56

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jabhatta2

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21 Jan 2022, 11:46

Hey MartyTargetTestPrep - Had a chance to review your respone on another website. I dont believe option C is saying - More Active babies absorb "more food" per 1 unit of milk.

Option C is instead saying - More active babies absorb more of the **nutrients** per 1 unit of milk

I dont understand why 'absorbing' more **nutrients** , explains the weight gain unfortunately ?

What about absorbing MORE NUTRIENTS leads to weight gain ?

Quote:

Nutrients of milk include = riboflavin / phosphorous / vitamins A and B12 / potassium / magnesium / zinc / iodine.

Let say, for every 1 unit of Milk - If more active babies are absorbing more zinc or more active babies are absorbing more vitamin A or B12 --- how does that lead to weight gain specifically ?

I am not sure which of these nutrients are calorific given I dont have a medical background

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21 Jan 2022, 12:40

jabhatta2

Quote:

Nutrients of milk include = riboflavin / phosphorous / vitamins A and B12 / potassium / magnesium / zinc / iodine.

Milk also includes fat, protein, and carbohydrates, all of which are calorific and are considered "nutrients."

Also, even non-calorific nutrients can help a baby gain weight by acting as necessary building blocks.

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21 Jan 2022, 13:11

MartyTargetTestPrep

Thanks MartyTargetTestPrep - if i understand the argument. Lets say both babies (active and non-active) are drinking 250 ml of milk
-- non- active babies ... out of 250 ml of milk ingested, this non-active baby is urinating away or poo'ing away says 200 ml of milk (Actual ingestion into blood stream- 50 ml of milk)
-- active baby ---------- out of 250 ml of milk ingested, this active baby is urinating away or poo'ing say only 100 ml of milk (actual ingestion into blood steam - 150 ml of milk)

This is what option C is referring to ?
Frankly in a 2 min per question exam -- i would have have cancelled out C because I wouldnt be able to think this if given 2 mins / question

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21 Jan 2022, 14:03

jabhatta2

MartyTargetTestPrep

Yes, that's what (C) indicates.

But you don't need all that detail. You need just the basic implication that one baby is absorbing more nutrients than the other.

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AbhishekBawa2604

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03 Jun 2022, 23:59

The argument mentions that if All babies who drink the same amount of milk, babies who are massaged gain more weight than babies who are not massaged. Where is the linkage between massage and premature in this statement?

GMATNinja - Please help

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08 Jun 2022, 10:49

AbhishekBawa2604

The first sentence of the passage specifies that we're talking about "premature babies," and give us info regarding these babies' massage routines and activity levels. The second sentence then talks about "the" babies, which implies that we're still talking about the SAME group of babies -- i.e., premature babies.

Think about this example:

The Man who Lived Underground

the

When you read this, it's clear that "the book" I'm talking about is the one that I specifically mentioned previously.

But what if I say this instead?

The Man who Lived Underground

Now, I'm just talking about how life-altering it is to read books in general.

So, because the argument talks about "the" babies, we can assume that we're still discussing premature babies in the second sentence.

I hope that helps!

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05 Nov 2022, 11:03

GMATNinja

adkikani

Quote:

)

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja
Thank you for your helpful reply.
I realize that the wrong answer choices incorporate the massage aspect in some shape or form, but isn't the massage aspect just extra background info? The babies that are massaged just happen to be more active. If we stripped the massage aspect from the babies that are more active, the correct answer choice does not seem to be impacted because all that it talks about is activity levels... there is no linkage between activity levels and the massaged from my understanding. Thank you again.

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07 Dec 2022, 10:04

woohoo921

It's pretty rare for a piece of information to be completely unconnected to the logic of the rest of the passage. Here, we learn that "premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than premature babies who do not." Sure, we don't know that the massage causes increased activity -- but we know that the two are linked.

An answer choice could absolutely talk about massage and resolve the discrepancy. For instance, what if we learn something new about massage that decreases the amount of food needed to gain weight? This fact about massage could be the correct answer.

Here, it just so happens that the correct answer choice doesn't directly mention massage. That doesn't mean that you can just ignore a piece of the passage, though -- you never know which information is going to be the key to assessing your answer choices, so you have to keep all of the details in mind when you go through the options.

I hope that helps!

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