Meaning Question

[todd]

Hi Erin,

Could you please explain why D is the answer? I know some other choices are wrong but, to me, this "20% less often~" choice is not persuasive enough to resolve the discrepancy.....Please help,

Todd

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. But, contrary to expectation, comparisons show that the dinners eaten at home by the two groups of adults do not differ significantly with respect to nutritional value, variety of menus, or number of courses.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy in the information above?

A) The fat content of the dinner eaten at home by adults who do not work outside the home is 25% higher than national guidelines recommend.

B) Adults who do not work outside the home tend to prepare breakfast more often than adults who work outside the home.

C) Adults who work outside the home spend 2 hours less time per day on all household responsibilities, including dinner preparation, than do adults who do not work outside the home.

D) Adults who work outside the home eat dinner at home 20% less often than do adults who do not work outside the home.

E) Adults who work outside the home are less likely to plan dinner menus well in advance than are adults who do not work outside the home.

[Erin]

Hi Erin,

Could you please explain why D is the answer? I know some other choices are wrong but, to me, this "20% less often~" choice is not persuasive enough to resolve the discrepancy.....Please help,

Todd

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. But, contrary to expectation, comparisons show that the dinners eaten at home by the two groups of adults do not differ significantly with respect to nutritional value, variety of menus, or number of courses.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy in the information above?

A) The fat content of the dinner eaten at home by adults who do not work outside the home is 25% higher than national guidelines recommend.

B) Adults who do not work outside the home tend to prepare breakfast more often than adults who work outside the home.

C) Adults who work outside the home spend 2 hours less time per day on all household responsibilities, including dinner preparation, than do adults who do not work outside the home.

D) Adults who work outside the home eat dinner at home 20% less often than do adults who do not work outside the home.

E) Adults who work outside the home are less likely to plan dinner menus well in advance than are adults who do not work outside the home.

Well Todd, as you astutely pointed out, we can eliminate all the other choices because they're simply not related.

And don't get too hung up on the 20% thing. Even though I think that 1/5 is a significant amount, you should interpret 20% as some vague amount that can contribute. I don't think the testmakers will try to trick you in this way, i.e., is 20% sufficient? if so, is 19%? if so, is 18%, and so on and so on and so on...

But the key to understanding this question is realizing that we are only comparing meals eaten at home, not all meals.

Imagine the following scenario:

An employed (outside the home) person eats dinner out 3x/week, eats dinner at home 4x/week. This person spends, let's say 200 minutes/week cooking meals.

A person (not employed outside the home) eats dinner out 1x/week, eats dinner at home 6x/week. This person spends, let's say 300 minutes/week cooking meals.

All this is reasonable, right? People who eat out more cook less, right? Right!

But the question is NOT comparing ALL meals, only those meals cooked at home.

So, keeping all this in mind, the question is something like this:

"How is it possible that people (who work outside home and eat out 3x per week) eat the same quality dinners at home that people (who do NOT work outside home and eat out 1x per week), even though they spend less total time per week cooking?"

Well, it's easy--they same the same amount of time per dinner, it's just that the total time is less.

Erin

TestMagic help you before your test?

Please remember to post after your test.

Please? Please?

[samirnajeeb]

who work outside the home spend, on average, 100 minutes less time each week in preparing dinner;

A) The fat content not relevant

B) tend to prepare breakfast more often who is talking about breakfast!!

C) 2 hours less time per day on all household responsibilities not relevant

D) Adults who work outside the home eat dinner at home 20% less often than do adults who do not work outside the home. eating dinner outside means less time to prep food each week. thats it .... this is the answer

E) plan dinner menus well in advance not relevant

[morningstar]

I think the only way one can ever reach this conclusion is by eliminating answer choices and back-solving! And that does not make it a very good question.