Logical reasoning PrepTest 111 · Section 4 · Question 12

Incorrect. If doctors believe that nutritious food promotes health, then this answer would suggest that the babies would continue to receive the benefits of the mom eating those foods after the birth and in the first year, making the paradox worse.

Incorrect. If the babies whose moms didn't eat nutritious foods are in better health than those whose moms did, then that makes the recommendation of the doctors even more suspect, and the paradox is worse.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Paradox

Stimulus Summary:
Doctors - Pregnant women should eat nutritious food to make their babies healthy
Results - Babies of moms who eat nutritious foods still have at least one health problem in their first year

Answer Anticipation:
As with all paradox questions, we should start by clearly defining that paradox. And this one falls into a particular category of Paradox questions—outcomes that seem to run counter to expert advice.

Here, the expert advice is that pregnant women should eat nutritious foods to promote healthy babies. However, these babies still have health issues in their first year.

First, a category of answers that are wrong in this pattern of Paradox question—something that calls the expert advice into question. We need to resolve the Paradox, which means the experts are right in spite of the paradoxical outcome.

Now, on to an actual anticipation. Treating the doctors' advice as true, we must accept that eating healthy foods makes babies healthier. So how can it be that these babies still have health issues? Well, that only makes sense if other babies—babies of moms who don't eat nutritious foods—have more health issues. This way, eating a nutritious diet would promote health, even if it doesn't completely eliminate health issues. Let's find an answer comparing the two groups of babies, establishing that the babies of moms who don't follow the advice have more health issues.

Answer Explanation:
This answer is the flipside of (B) and is correct. If all babies develop health issues in their first year, but the kids of moms who don't eat nutritious foods during their pregnancy have more of them, then the doctors' recommendation makes sense even if those kids still have some health issues. Key Takeaway:
First, Paradox questions frequently bring up a situation where expert advice seems to lead to a negative outcome. In these situations, we can't question the advice of the experts, so we should treat what they say as true.

Second, Paradox questions frequently deal in comparisons. Here, that was the case, but it hid it well! Promote, though, is an inherently comparative concept, since you can promote something and have the promoted item happen at different levels.

Incorrect. This answer suggests that parents should do what they can to avoid these first-year health problems, but it doesn't connect to the nutritious food at all.

Incorrect. So, in other words, the doctors still believe in their recommendation. That doesn't change anything, so it definitely doesn't help resolve the paradox!