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by jainrahul1985 » Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:47 am
In parts of South America, vitamin-A deficiency is a serious health problem, especially among children. In one region, agriculturists hope to improve nutrition by encouraging farmers to plant a new variety of sweet potato called SPK004 that is rich in betacarotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. The plan has good chances of success, since sweet potato is a staple of the region's diet and agriculture, and the varieties currently grown contain little beta-carotene.

which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that the plan will succeed?

a. There are other vegetables currently grown in the region that contain more beta-carotene than the currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato do.
b. The flesh of SPK004 differs from that of the currently cultivated sweet potatoes in colors and textures, so traditional foods would look somewhat different when prepared from SPK004.
c. For successful cultivation of SPK004, a soil significantly richer in nitrogen is needed than is needed for the varieties of sweet potato currently cultivated in the region.
d. There are no other varieties of sweet potato that are significantly richer in beta-carotene than SPK004 is.
e. the currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato contain no important nutrients that SPK004 lacks.


Why is the OA E
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by ashish2104 » Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:54 am
The plan is to introduce new sweet potato to improve health. E says that new sweet potato will provide all important nutrients. New sweet potato will not miss on some nutrients which the old sweet potato was providing. hence substituion with new potato is good.
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by ankurmit » Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:58 pm
Only D and E seem contenders but E is correct as

D says that there are no other varieties of sweet potato that are significantly richer in beta-carotene than SPK004 is.

Same information is already provided in stem and therefore D will not strengthen this stem anymore.


See stem bold part

The plan has good chances of success, since sweet potato is a staple of the region's diet and agriculture, and the varieties currently grown contain little beta-carotene.
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by Whitney Garner » Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:19 am
jainrahul1985 wrote:In parts of South America, vitamin-A deficiency is a serious health problem, especially among children. In one region, agriculturists hope to improve nutrition by encouraging farmers to plant a new variety of sweet potato called SPK004 that is rich in betacarotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. The plan has good chances of success, since sweet potato is a staple of the region's diet and agriculture, and the varieties currently grown contain little beta-carotene.

which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that the plan will succeed?

a. There are other vegetables currently grown in the region that contain more beta-carotene than the currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato do.
b. The flesh of SPK004 differs from that of the currently cultivated sweet potatoes in colors and textures, so traditional foods would look somewhat different when prepared from SPK004.
c. For successful cultivation of SPK004, a soil significantly richer in nitrogen is needed than is needed for the varieties of sweet potato currently cultivated in the region.
d. There are no other varieties of sweet potato that are significantly richer in beta-carotene than SPK004 is.
e. the currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato contain no important nutrients that SPK004 lacks.


Why is the OA E
The conclusion is that the new sweet-potatoes will improve nutrition, but the conversation so far has only talked about beta-carotene. In order for overall nutrition to improve, then we cannot LOSE nutrients by adding the new potato. Choice E is the only choice showing that the addition of more beta-carotene doesn't come with a loss in any of the other nutrients.

Also remember that we are looking to Strengthen the argument that the plan will work:

(A) This attempts to weaken by indicating that there are alternatives to a new sweet potato, but those alternatives are already in place and will remain in place. This will have no impact on adding even more beta-carotene rich potatoes.
(B) How foods look doesn't directly impact the nutrition unless we make a fairly BIG assumption that changing the look means people will not eat them - again, too big of a leap for the GMAT, but even this assumption would weaken not strengthen.
(C) This weakens slightly by saying that these potatoes will be tougher to grow, meaning that people might not be able to produce as many
(D) The argument doesn't claim that these SPK004 are the BEST source of beta-carotene so this has no impact on level of nutritional improvement
(E) This tells us that not only are we adding beta-carotene, we are also maintaining the levels of all other nutrients in the potatoes - adding more vitamins without losing any is a support that the plan will work

Hope this helps!
Whit
Whitney Garner
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