Logical reasoning PrepTest 132 · Section 4 · Question 26

Incorrect. This answer highlights a relevant difference between the age groups. If doctors are more likely to catch malnutrition in younger patients, that would explain why the percentages skew in the way they do.

Incorrect. Another relevant difference—the older group takes a medicine increasing their nutritional needs, thus making it more likely they'll fail to meet them and be malnourished.

Incorrect. Loss of appetite could lead to malnutrition, so this answer brings up a relevant difference and thus explains the data.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Bizarro Paradox

Stimulus Summary:
65+ – 25% malnourished, but 12% below poverty line
65 and under – A greater percentage fell below the poverty line than were malnourished

Answer Anticipation:
This question features data about two age groups, and the relationship between poverty and malnourishment. Based on the way the Sociologist discusses the data for the group 65 and under, the important piece of data here isn't the specific numbers, but rather the relationship between them. For those over 65, a higher percentage were malnourished than were poor. For those 65 and under, that's reversed.

So to explain this data, we should look for a relevant difference between these two groups that could explain why that relationship is inverted. There will be at least 4 explanations, so we should spend less time anticipating a variety of possible answers and more analyzing the answers through what we just defined they have to do.

Answer Explanation:
Unlike all the other answer choices, this one brings up a similarity, and thus it doesn't explain why the nutrition falls on different sides of the poverty line for these two age groups.

Key Takeaway:
In Paradox questions, when attempting to explain a difference, relevant differences tend to be correct answers. In fact, across question types, if an argument deals with comparisons, then the correct answer will likely bring up an additional relevant point of comparison.

Incorrect. Another answer that brings up a relevant difference—if digestion is more likely to be negatively affected in those over 65, then that group would be more susceptible to malnutrition.