Self-study
Adults who work outside the home spend, on average, 100 minutes less time each week in preparing dinner than adults who do not work outside the home. ████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Adults who work outside the home spend less time preparing dinner compared to adults who do not work outside the home, but both groups eat dinners at home that are similar in nutritional value, variety, and number of courses.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that offers a similarity between both groups. This similarity will explain how they have similar quality dinners at home even though adults who work outside the home spend less time preparing dinner than adults who do not work outside the home. It will resolve the apparent discrepancy in the stimulus, which is that if one spends less time preparing dinner, their dinners are presumably less nutritional, have less variety, or have less courses.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
The fat content ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██████████
(A) compares the fat content of dinners eaten at home by adults who do not work outside the home to the national guidelines. (A) does not compare or provide information on the two groups in question (adults who work outside the home and adults who do not).
b
Adults who do ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████
This does not help to explain the apparent discrepancy: the stimulus discusses dinner, not breakfast.
c
Adults who work ███████ ███ ████ █████ █ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████████████ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████
This does not offer a similarity that helps to explain the apparent discrepancy: the stimulus already says that adults who work outside the home spend less time on dinner, which is at the core of the discrepancy.
d
Adults who work ███████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████
(D) draws a similarity between the groups, explaining that they may actually spend similar amounts of time preparing dinner at home. Adults who work outside the home eat less dinners at home, meaning the time they do spend on preparing dinner at home is spread across less meals.
e
Adults who work ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████
This deepens the discrepancy between adults who work outside the home and adults who do not. According to (E), adults who work outside the home do less cooking and less planning, yet their homemade dinners are somehow similar to the stay-at-home group's.