Self-study
Most doctors recommend that pregnant women eat a nutritious diet to promote the health of their babies. ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ █████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Pregnant women are told to eat nutritiously to ensure their babies’ health, so why do babies born to these women still usually have at least one health issue in their first year?
Objective
The correct answer must explain why health problems still occur in babies whose mothers eat health-promoting diets. We don't know how many health problems occur in babies born to mothers with non-nutritious diets, so one possibility is that babies whose mothers eat nutritious diets are still better off than those whose mothers don’t.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Women who regularly ███ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ███████████████
We would expect this to offer infants health benefits throughout their first year, so the discrepancy becomes even harder to explain. This does not tell us why mothers with healthy diets still have babies with health problems.
b
Most of the ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████
It doesn’t matter what happens later in childhood, because the stimulus only discusses the first year of an infant’s life. The right answer needs to address health problems within the first year, which this doesn't.
c
Babies of women ███ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████
So the mothers who followed the doctors’ advice would generally have healthier babies than the mothers who didn’t—it's just that healthier babies may still not be perfectly healthy. With this, the discrepancy is effectively resolved.
d
Medical problems that ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████████
The stimulus only discusses the first year of infancy, so any comparison to problems in later childhood is irrelevant. This also doesn't explain why mothers who eat healthy still have babies with health problems.
e
Many of the ██████████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ███████████████
In other words, nothing has changed about doctors' advice. That doesn't tell us anything about the effect of a nutritious diet, or why mothers can eat such a diet and still have babies with health problems.