Over the past twenty years in the U.S., the average number of hours pe

Question

Over the past twenty years in the U.S., the average number of hours per week that people spend at work has increased from approximately 41 hours to nearly 52 hours. It is thought that this change has played an important role in the corresponding increase in average body mass index for working Americans over the same period. The increased time at work does not allow people as much time to exercise and engage in healthy activities that help reduce weight.

Which of the following questions would be most useful to answer in determining whether the increased workweek is an important cause of the increase in average body mass index over the past twenty years?

A. Do more employers offer healthy eating options in their onsite cafeterias today compared to twenty years ago?
B. Do more employers subsidize gym and health club memberships for their employees today compared to twenty years ago?
C. What percentage of employees use their free time to exercise and engage in healthy activities today compared to twenty years ago?
D. Did employees exercise and engage in healthy activities with the additional time when they were not at work twenty years ago?
E. What factors other than exercise and engaging in healthy activities are important for weight loss?

Beko2021 · Answer

Probably under C. Making schedule of daily duties is important.

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Tanvay · Answer

D is the answer. Since if yes it weakens the argument and if yes it strengthens the argument

Ghostrider3147 · Answer

D. Did employees exercise and engage in healthy activities with the additional time when they were not at work twenty years ago?

If yes,then 20 years ago employees were healthy than they are today. Strengthening the conclusion.

If no, then increased work time plays no role in increased BMI.
weakening the conclusion.

D- correct option.

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Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

In this question, your goal is to assess the quality of the argument supporting the increase in the average workweek as an important cause for the increase in BMI over a period of 20 years. What is the evidence given for this conclusion? That the increased time at work does not allow people as much time to exercise and engage in healthy activities that help reduce weight. As in any useful to evaluate question, you should attack this line of reasoning and consider what assumptions or flaws are inherent in the argument. At its heart, this argument makes an important assumption: that 20 years ago people used the additional time when they were not at work to exercise and engage in healthy activities. Imagine that 20 years ago almost no one used that additional 11 hours to exercise – they used it to go out to dinner, watch TV, sleep, etc. Then this argument falls apart as the additional time spent at work does not change the time available for exercise and healthy activities compared to 20 years ago. Any question that relates to this assumption will be the correct answer. For (A) and (B) these questions are unimportant as they do not relate to the issue of having more time. (C) is quite tricky and might seem important at first glance but the percentage is not important. Imagine that a higher percentage of people today are engaging in exercise and healthy activities but they only have a very small amount of time to do it or vice versa. The issue is whether they now lack the time to exercise and engage in healthy activities and this question does not address this fact. (D) hits exactly the assumption discussed earlier and is thus the correct answer. For (E), this argument is only about whether a lack of time to exercise and engage in healthy activities resulting from more work is the cause of an increase in average body mass index – other factors are not important.  Correct answer is (D).

VerbalBot · Answer

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Over the past twenty years in the U.S., the average number of hours pe

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