The average life expectancy of the population of Japan has risen stead

Question

The average life expectancy of the population of Japan has risen steadily since 1960 and is now the highest national average in the world, even though heart disease among the Japanese has increased since they began to eat more of the fatty foods typical of the diets of people in Western countries.

Which of the following, if true, best helps to explain the steady rise in life expectancy that is cited above?

(A) The average Westerner is still five times more likely to develop heart disease than is the average Japanese person. 
(B) Since 1960 the decline in illnesses that kill more Japanese people than does heart disease has been greater than the increase in heart disease. 
(C) The life expectancy of the average Westerner has risen at a slower rate since 1960 than it did before 1960. 
(D) The Japanese diet has traditionally included many nonfatty foods that are thought to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. 
(E) The life-style of some Japanese people includes regular exercise, which is thought to help the heart resist the loss of strength that accompanies aging.

Rajdeep1989 · Answer

The passage says that the Japanese have the highest national average in life expectancy in the world. so its a global record and not a comparison between western nations and Japan only (China, India, Australia etc also counts. So Choices A and C are eliminated. Choice D contradicts what is said in the passage and Choice E talks about "Some Japanese" and again ignores the whole scenario i.e taking all people into consideration.

Only B makes sense although its a very twisted statement.

PrateekSood · Answer

I think this is a good question.

chris1223 · Answer

can someone help with this question thanks

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

The key thing here is that the text makes some comparisons to other countries, but that's not what the question is asking about. We're asked to find an answer that helps explain why life expectancy has risen, even though heart disease has risen at the same time. So we need an answer that provides other drivers of higher life expectancy. (We could also get by with an answer that said heart disease doesn't lower life expectancy, but that wouldn't be likely to appear, since it's definitely not true!)

A and C compare to other countries, so they don't address the issue we need. D and E give factors that might reduce heart disease, but we know for a fact that heart disease is up, even if these factors are present. Nothing in D or E tells us why people might be living longer despite the increase in heart disease. (You could try to make a case for E saying that people are more likely to survive heart disease if they engage in heart-protective exercise, but as Rajdeep points out, it's not very useful to know what "some" people do. Surely, some people have always exercised, no matter where in the world we look. That doesn't tell us what is typical, common, or representative of the overall population in a given time and place.)

B gives us what we want: other causes of death are down. That's exactly what we needed. If other causes are down, then it makes sense that we saw an increase in life expectancy despite the rise of heart disease. And while this doesn't say "Heart disease is no big deal," it nods in that direction by saying that the other causes in question are bigger than heart disease.

As a comparison, imagine a text that "Ed had a 20% pay cut at work two years ago, but his bank balance has been growing faster than ever since that time." How could we explain this? Maybe Ed had an increase in some other revenue source, or a drop in expenses. And if that factor exceeds his pay cut (or his overall pay), you can see how he'd do very well. For instance, if an answer said "Ed's spouse, who already earned twice what Fred did, got a 70% raise two years ago," that would be just what we needed!

The average life expectancy of the population of Japan has risen stead

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The average life expectancy of the population of Japan has risen stead

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