Mother

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Mother

by parulmahajan89 » Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:08 pm
Information gathered from nearly 30 studies of people in different countries representing all socioeconomic classes supports the hypothesis that an expectant mother's eating habits have a major effect on whether her child will develop heart disease as an adult. The studies also show that some of the impact of maternal eating habits occurs very early in fetal development, when the woman is unaware that she is pregnant.
If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them?

An expectant mother can virtually eliminate any chance that her child will suffer from heart disease as an adult by maintaining a healthful diet during pregnancy.

Maternal nutrition has a greater impact on the likelihood that a child will develop adult heart disease than does an individual's diet or health habits.

The effect of an expectant mother's diet on the likelihood that her child will develop adult heart disease is greatest in the very early stages of pregnancy.

In order to control all of the influence that her eating habits have on her baby's chances of developing heart disease as an adult a woman should control her eating habits whenever there is a possibility that she may be pregnant.

It is likely that an expectant mother's eating habits also strongly affect the chances of her child's developing heart disease prior to adulthood.

Is it D?
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by [email protected] » Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:51 pm
Hi parulmahajan89,

This is an example of an Inference CR prompt; it's built on the idea that everything in the paragraph is true, so one of the five answer choices will also be true. We have to make sure that we pick an answer that matches the given information.

The prompt focuses on how the eating habits of expectant (pregnant) mothers affects whether her child will develop heart disease as an adult. It goes on to say that some of these affects occur early on, even when the mother doesn't know that she's pregnant.

We need an answer that logically discusses expectant mothers, eating habits, and how their children may or may not develop heart disease as an adult (because these are the only things we know anything about).

As you've correctly deduced, only answer D matches that. Every other answer includes information that does not match the prompt.

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by parulmahajan89 » Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:49 pm
Answer choice A also looks appealing here. Can you explain why is it wrong?

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by [email protected] » Fri Nov 22, 2013 7:41 pm
Hi parulmahajan89,

While the prompt does state that mother's eating habits effect the chances of the child developing heart disease as an adult, there are no details about HOW MUCH the eating habits effect the chances. While it's likely that certain eating habits might greatly increase or decrease the chances of heart disease in the child as an adult, the prompt does NOT imply that the chances can be "virtually eliminate(d)", which is what is stated in Answer A. It's too "far-reaching" of an answer to be correct.

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by BTGmoderatorAT » Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:43 am
Maternal nutrition has a greater impact on the likelihood that a child will develop adult heart disease than does an individual's diet or health habits.

*I go for "B"..For me, it doesn't matter how much you eat, but WHAT you eat is far more important..Am I correct with this?any insights?