Self-study
Coffee and tea contain methylxanthines, which cause temporary increases in the natural production of vasopressin, a hormone produced by the pituitary gland. ███████████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████ ████████████ █ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████
The Causal Chain
Coffee and tea contain a chemical (methylxanthines) that temporarily boosts the body's production of vasopressin, a hormone made in the pituitary gland. Vasopressin causes blood cells to clump, and the clumping is more pronounced in women than in men. The author thinks that difference, the more pronounced clumping in women, is probably what explains why women face up to a tenfold higher risk of complications after angioplasty (an operation to clear clogged arteries).
The stimulus gives us a causal chain:
coffee/tea
(methylxanthines)
(methylxanthines)
more
vasopressin
vasopressin
blood cell clumping
(worse in women)
(worse in women)
higher complication risk after angioplasty
(in women)
(in women)
Anticipation
The most natural inference to make from the stimulus is that coffee and tea ultimately put women at greater risk after angioplasty. Stay open to unexpected answers, however. On Most Strongly Supported questions, we may end up having to select an imperfect answer over four worse ones.
12.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Men, but not ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████████████
Unsupported. The stimulus only describes a downside of methylxanthines: they kick off the chain that ends in dangerous clumping. Nothing in the stimulus tells us methylxanthines do anything good for anyone, so there's no basis for recommending them to men, women, or anyone else.
b
In spite of ███ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ███████ █████████
Unsupported. The stimulus tells us angioplasty is a technique for clearing clogged arteries. It says nothing about whether other techniques exist or whether they work. Calling angioplasty the only effective treatment requires ruling out alternatives the stimulus never gestures at.
c
Women probably drink ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████
C) is tempting because, if it were true, it would offer a clean explanation for why women have more pronounced clumping than men: more coffee and tea means more methylxanthines means more vasopressin means more clumping.
But Most Strongly Supported asks what the facts support, not what hypothesis would, if added to the facts, account for one of them. The stimulus says nothing about how much coffee or tea men or women drink. Without information on consumption rates, the facts don't support the claim that women drink more.
And there are plenty of other ways to explain the gender gap in clumping. Maybe women's bodies respond more strongly to vasopressin. Maybe female blood cells are more prone to clumping for hormonal reasons. The stimulus doesn't pick among these, so neither can we.
One more wrinkle: the stimulus says coffee and tea contain methylxanthines, not that coffee and tea are the only sources. So even if you assumed (without support) that women have more methylxanthines than men, you still couldn't pin that on coffee and tea specifically.
d
Prior to undergoing ████████████ █████ ██████ █████ ██████ ███ ████
The stimulus tells us coffee and tea contain a substance that, several steps down the line, leads to a much higher complication risk in women after angioplasty. So a woman about to undergo angioplasty has a reason to skip coffee and tea beforehand.
Two reasons people resist (D):
The word "should." Prescriptive language is normally a red flag in MSS, because the stimulus rarely tells us what people care about. Here, though, the only assumption we need is that someone undergoing angioplasty would prefer not to have complications. That's a reasonable common-sense premise, and Most Strongly Supported applies a common-sense reasoning standard. Compare this to (E), which asks us to recommend against angioplasty entirely, a more extreme position.
The asymmetry between women and men. If you read (D) as "women, but not men, should avoid coffee and tea," you're adding a contrast that isn't there. (D) tells women to skip coffee and tea before angioplasty. It's silent about men.
If you're still uncomfortable, remember that MSS is comparative. (D) doesn't have to be airtight; it just has to be better supported than the alternatives.
e
Angioplasty should not ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████
Unsupported. The stimulus tells us about angioplasty's complication risk, but nothing about its benefits. Angioplasty exists to clear clogged arteries, presumably because clogged arteries are bad. Whether the complication risk outweighs that benefit is a question the stimulus doesn't address, so we can't conclude angioplasty should not be used.