Reading comp PrepTest 116 · Section 4 · Question 27

Passage

Questions 20-27  .        Most scientists who study the physiological effects  . of alcoholic beverages have assumed that wine, like Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Scientists' misconception about wine (no different than other alcohol, only study excessive drinking)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Scientists assumed that the only active ingredient in wine was alcohol, so they didn't study it separately from other alcoholic beverages and only focused on excessive drinking (first through last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Unlike other alcoholic beverages, people have long thought that wine could have health benefits (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "assumed" (first sentence), "study only the excessive or abusive intake" (last sentence), "obscure" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • New evidence challenges misconception about wine (absorbed more slowly, may lower heart disease risk)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Example of alcohol's negative health effects :
      • Alcohol increases lipid levels in the blood, a factor in developing heart disease (second sentence)
    • Definition of "lipids": fats and other substances, including cholesterol (second sentence)
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Alcohol is absorbed more slowly when drinking wine (second sentence)
      • Those who drink wine moderately have a lower risk of death due to heart disease in some European countries (third sentence)
      • The benefits are the same for red and white wines (fourth sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "shown conclusively" (second sentence), "dangerous increases" (second sentence), "a large contributing factor" (second sentence), "much more slowly" (second sentence), "More remarkably" (third sentence), "decreased dramatically" (third sentence), "has shown" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Evidence of wine's (or maybe grapes') healthful effects (clot-breaking, thins blood-vessel walls, reduces platelet adhesiveness)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Definition of "endothelial cell reactivity": affects the thickness of the innermost walls of blood vessels (fourth sentence)
    • Definition of "platelet adhesiveness": influences the degree to which platelets cause blood to clot (fourth sentence)
    • List of cause-and-effect relationships (showing that wine can produce healthful effects), according to the author:
      • Wine causes increased activity of a natural clot–breaking compound (first sentence)
      • Wine cause increased levels of certain compounds that may help to prevent damage from high lipid level, and decreases endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness (second through fifth sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • One study showed that drinking grape juice could also decrease platelet adhesiveness (sixth sentence)
      • This might show that the health benefits of wine come from natural compounds in grapes and are thus not present in other alcoholic beverages (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "studies show" (first sentence), "indicate" (second sentence), "may help to prevent" (second sentence), "one of the most important discoveries" (third sentence), "additional important contributing factors" (third sentence), "each linked" (fourth sentence), "appears to have ameliorating effects" (fifth sentence), "demonstrated," (sixth sentence), " "may be the first step in confirming speculation" (last sentence), "may derive" (last sentence)

Main Point: Though previously ignored by scientists, recent studies show that moderate wine consumption may produce significant health benefits.

Meta-Structure?

Correcting the Record: This passage most closely matches a Correcting the Record Meta-Structure.* In such a structure, a common misconception or false belief is described and then corrected.

The passage begins by introducing a misconception: scientists have assumed that wine is the same as other alcoholic beverages and thus neglected to investigate any potential health benefits that it might provide. The second paragraph tells about recent research that challenges this assumption. This new information shows that wine has some important differences (ex: its alcohol is absorbed more slowly). Also, correlations between moderate wine consumption and reduced incidence of heart disease have been observed in Europe. But what, the author asks, could explain these effects of imbibing wine? The final paragraph tells us how. Wine can reduce various contributing factors of heart disease (blood vessel wall thickness, blood clot frequency, etc.). Finally, the author suggests a possible explanation for the observed benefits of wine consumption: there might be health-giving natural compounds in grapes.

In passages that utilize a Correcting the Record Meta-Structure, the main point will be the author's explanation of why the misconception is false. In the passage, the misconception is that wine has no unique health benefits worth investigating. The author thinks this belief is false because wine has been shown to have several qualities that can directly improve one's health. Therefore, we can anticipate a main point that looks something like this: "Though previously ignored by scientists, recent studies show that moderate wine consumption may produce significant health benefits."

*As is the case for many passages that utilize a Critical Meta-Structure, another Meta-Structure from that family — like Criticizing a Viewpoint — could apply to this passage. After all, there is considerable overlap between the Correcting the Record and Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structures. Other Meta-Structures work for this passage, too. The passage may utilize a Question/Answer or Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure (Q/Phenomenon: why does wine appear to have healthful effects? A/Explanation: changes that may be related to compounds found in grapes). We could even classify this as an Importance of Subject Meta-Structure or a Proposing a Hypothesis Meta-Structure.

Cause and Effect: As is often the case for science passages, we get a heavy pour of cause and effect in this passage. This passage outlines many of the ways wine can cause health benefits: it causes a decrease in the risk of heart disease in some European countries (P2, S3), an increase in natural clot-breakers (P3, S1), and a decrease in endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness (P3, S5). We also learn of some ways alcohol usually causes bad health: it causes dangerous increases in lipid levels and heart disease (P2, S2). Let's have these relationships highlighted since we're likely to get a question or two about them.

Last Thoughts?

This passage features a clear structure, many minor Meta-Structures, and a fair amount of author’s attitude. That tells us we’re probably going to get a mix of questions from each of the Reading Comp question families — Major Point, Minor Point, Argument Struxture, Tone, and Application.

Question prompt

The author suggests each Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to eliminate the incorrect answer choices

Answer Anticipation

For these Bizarro Must Be True questions, the correct answer will either present a topic not discussed by the passage or assert a claim contradicted by information in the passage. For the former, we’ll generally use a process of elimination to get rid of each answer that does show up in the passage. For the latter — we’re in luck — as we can find a line citation to prove that the passage contradicts the correct answer. In that case, we can feel a lot more comfortable about picking it — while also likely getting it correct faster. But we won’t know if this is the case for the correct answer until after we analyze it, so we should expect to use a process of elimination.As such, we’ll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something seems familiar, consistent with the main point, or reflected in our notes, it’s probably supported by the passage. We can eliminate it without checking the passage. If something seems inconsistent with the main point, it’s probably the correct answer. We can use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be false. If we can find that confirmation, we’ll select that answer choice and move on. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn’t reflected in our notes on each paragraph, we should mark that answer choice as the possible correct answer. Once we've eliminated the remaining answer choices, we can select it.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Greater platelet adhesiveness increases Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yes! Even if we don't remember this detail from the passage, we can consult our notes. Our note for the third paragraph is "Evidence of wine's (or maybe grapes') healthful effects (clot-breaking, thins blood-vessel walls, reduces platelet adhesiveness)." Since reducing platelet adhesiveness is evidence of wine's healthful effects and reducing the risk of heart disease is the main health effect discussed in this passage, we can infer that this statement is supported by the passage. We can eliminate it without checking the passage.

    If we did check the passage, we'd see that wine helps reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering the platelet adhesiveness and thus lowering the amount of blood clots (P3, S4-S5). So, we can infer that higher platelet adhesiveness increases that risk.

  2. B
    The body's ability to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Connecting our notes for the first and second paragraphs may allow us to infer this. Our first paragraph's note says that scientists have a "misconception" that wine is "no different than other alcohol" in its bad effects on our health. Our note for the second paragraph suggests that wine is "absorbed more slowly," so it "may lower [one's] heart disease risk." If this makes wine different, then we can infer that other alcohol in one's bloodstream can interfere with the body's ability to process lipids — especially if we can recall that heart disease due to high lipid levels in the bloodstream is the main health concern discussed by this pasage

    But if we don't remember this detail from the passage or have trouble making that connection, we may need to review the passage to eliminate (B). Upon review, we'll read that "alcohol strongly affects the body's processing of lipids … causing dangerous increases in the levels of these substances in the blood" (P2, S2). Since (B) is supported by the passage, it's out.

  3. C
    Doctors have access to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yep. Even if we don't remember this detail from the passage, we can consult our notes. Our note for the third paragraph is "Evidence of wine's (or maybe grapes') healthful effects (clot-breaking, thins blood-vessel walls, reduces platelet adhesiveness)." Since "clot-breaking" is a positive effect of alcohol and doctors have access to alcohol, then they have access to a natural clot-breaker. We can eliminate (C) without checking the passage.

    If we did check the passage, we'd see that it explicitly says that doctors use this natural compound to treat people with heart disease (P3, S1). Since (C) is supported by the passage, it's out.

  4. D
    High lipid levels are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. Neither the main point nor our notes connect lipid levels with endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness. For this reason, it's probably safest to table (D), make sure we can eliminate (E), and then select (D) after we eliminate (E).

    However, if we needed to, we could check the passage to confirm that (D) is not supported. Our note for the third paragraph suggests we should review that. There, the author explicitly distinguishes high lipid levels from endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness. The author says that there's an important "link between lipid processing and premature heart disease," but there are "several additional important contributing factors" (P3, S3). Endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness are two such factors. Because these factors are separate from lipid levels, we don't have any reason to believe that high lipid levels increase endothelial cell reactivity and platelet adhesiveness. (D) is not supported by the passage, so it's our answer!

  5. E
    Moderate wine consumption appears Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yep. Even if we don't remember this detail from the passage, we can consult our notes. Our note for the third paragraph is "Evidence of wine's (or maybe grapes') healthful effects (clot-breaking, thins blood-vessel walls, reduces platelet adhesiveness)." Since thinning blood vessel walls is evidence of wine's healthful effects and reducing the risk of heart disease is the main health effect discussed in this passage, we can infer that this statement is supported by the passage. We can eliminate it without checking the passage.

    If we did check the passage, we'd see that the passage explicitly supports this claim (P3, S5). Since (E) is supported by the passage, it's out.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 11%
  3. C 22%
  4. D Credited 57%
  5. E 4%

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