#4 - Cooking teacher: Lima beans generally need about an

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (D)

The cooking teacher supplies us with information about a dish sure to please: the lima bean.

The proper cooking of the lima bean involves the size of the lima bean. Even though lima beans require generally an hour to properly cook, the time could be more or less depending on size. Overcooking is bad because it removes nutrients, undercooking is bad because the such beans cannot be fully digested.

One inference we might draw is that each lima bean has a particular window of ideal cooking times, and that since this window depends on the size of the bean, similarly sized beans would have similar ideal cooking times.

Answer choice (A): Since it is possible to cook the beans exactly right, this choice is unsupported, and incorrect. You should not assume that there is a continuum that makes properly done beans almost equivalent to overly cooked beans, because the stimulus gives us no clue as to the acceptable margins of error.

Answer choice (B): Since the stimulus did not attempt to establish whether overcooking and undercooking were nutritionally equal, this choice is unsupported, and incorrect.

Answer choice (C): The stimulus suggested that larger beans should be cooked longer, but made no comment about which bean, when properly cooked, is more digestible, so this choice is wrong.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice, and basically why the cooking teacher would have bothered to make the statements in the stimulus. Since different sized beans require different cooking times, if we want all of the beans we cook to be digestible and nutritious, we should use beans that are the same size as each other, so that all of them are properly cooked. You can assume that beans that are not fully digestible do not yield full nutritional value.

Answer choice (E): Since the stimulus never said which was better, this answer choice is unsupported and incorrect. If a bean is partially indigestible, it makes sense to believe that some nutritional value is lost, so we cannot make conclusions about whether it is better to cook some nutrients out, or leave the bean somewhat indigestible.

[rameday]

For question 29 on page 1-84 why is C wrong and D correct? My pre phrase was along the lines of the correct answer will incorporate something with difference in size and how that impacts doneness, nutrition and digestion. C and D were my two contenders.
A

[KelseyWoods]

Hi A,

So for answer choice (C), we don't have any information in the stimulus about any difference in digestibility between large and small lima beans. We know that undercooked beans cannot be fully digested but we know nothing about how digestible fully cooked large lima beans are compared to small lima beans.

Answer choice (D), however, is supported by the information in the stimulus. We know that larger beans take longer to cook but if you overcook or undercook your beans, you are losing nutritional value (you can assume that if you cannot completely digest undercooked beans, then you are not getting the full nutritional value out of them). Therefore, if you want to make sure you're getting all of your nutritional value, you need to make sure that your beans are about the same size. If you mix large and small beans together, you might overcook the small ones and undercook the large ones.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[piercebarry]

Hi,

I got this question right by eliminating all other options and thinking about it logically, but I still have a question. In this short passage, there is no information that says that you cannot cook lima beans in the same pot for differing amounts of time. For example, I could put large and small lima beans in the same pot and just take the small ones out earlier, thus making sure all beans are cooked perfectly. Realistically, I would not do this because it would make it a lot more difficult, but the passage doesn't tell us that so I don't see how this answer is supported by the passage. Am I thinking about this incorrectly?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi piercebarry,

The first thing to note is that this question is asking for the answer that is most strongly supported by the information in the stimulus rather than what must be 100% true.

While you are correct that it may be theoretically possible to add beans of different sizes in the same pot and then take them out separately as each becomes perfectly cooked based on its size, this is presumably much more difficult.

Answer D is making a general recommendation on how the beans should be cooked to best maintain their nutritional value that makes sense based on the information in the stimulus.

It's not stating that this would be the only way to achieve the best nutritional results. For example, I suppose one could cook each bean individually and perfectly calibrate the time based on the bean's exact size, but that would be rather tedious as well.