#20 - Magazine article: Sugar consumption may exacerbate

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption-CE. The correct answer choice is (D)

The conclusion of this article is presented in the first sentence: sugar consumption may worsen ADD in children. This is based on a single premise: sugar can increase adrenaline production, especially when the sugar is in candy:

• Premise: sugar can cause adrenaline increase: Sugar → adrenaline
  
  Conclusion: sugar can worsen ADD: Sugar → ADD worse

The supporter assumption we seek in response to this question must link the two rogue elements: adrenaline increase and ADD exacerbation.

Answer choice (A): since the stimulus does not deal with children without ADD, this answer choice deals with a completely different population and is thus irrelevant.

Answer choice (B): The stimulus is not about causing ADD, it's about causing exacerbation of ADD, so this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): The author does not delve into the treatment of ADD, instead focusing on ADD exacerbation caused by sugar.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice, providing the exact supporter assumption necessary to link the rogue elements: Increased adrenaline can exacerbate ADD in children.

Answer choice (E): The point of the reference to candy is that it worsens the effects of sugar, not that other types of sugar have no significant effect on adrenaline levels.

[adlindsey]

I don't know why adrenaline is a required assumption for ADD. What does it have to do with ADD? I know sugar causes adrenaline, and sugar may exacerbate ADD. I'm not a bio major, so I wouldn't know if there is a relation with adrenaline and ADD. I just don't see how there's a missing link in the setup: P- S A; C- S ADD worsen.

I could see a missing link if it were: S A; A ADD worsen.

[David Boyle]

I don't know why adrenaline is a required assumption for ADD. What does it have to do with ADD? I know sugar causes adrenaline, and sugar may exacerbate ADD. I'm not a bio major, so I wouldn't know if there is a relation with adrenaline and ADD. I just don't see how there's a missing link in the setup: P- S A; C- S ADD worsen.

I could see a missing link if it were: S A; A ADD worsen.

Hello alindsey,

It's a supporter assumption, which is something like a valid Justify question answer. You want to link adrenaline with ADD, otherwise there's no reason to assume that "Sugar consumption may exacerbate attention deficit disorder (ADD) in children." So answer D does the trick.

Hope this helps,
David

[andriana.caban]

I understand why choice D is correct, however, can you provide the negation technique used for assumption questions for question choice D? I think I confused myself and did the negation wrong:

D: Decreased adrenaline production can make ADD less severe in children? I thought this didn't kill the argument and eliminated the answer choice?

[AthenaDalton]

Andriana,

Applying the assumption negation technique to answer choice (D) would result in the following:

(D) Increased adrenaline production cannot make ADD more severe in children

You could also think of this as "increase adrenaline production has no effect on the severity of ADD in children."

In either case, if we conclude that there is no link between adrenaline and ADD in kids, then it wouldn't make much sense to criticize sugar consumption in making ADD worse.

The argument in the magazine article goes as follows:

Sugar consumption Increase in adrenaline Increase in severity of ADD in kids

If we negate answer choice (D), it breaks the link between adrenaline and ADD. This confirms that (D) is correct.

Best of luck studying!

Athena Dalton

[TigerPrince]

I was caught between (A) and (D) as my contenders for this question, and I ultimately went with (A) despite my instincts telling me that this answer choice concerned a different group than the one in the stimulus.

However, I justified (A) by attempting to negate it. I tried it two ways: if adrenaline levels of children who DO have ADD is NOT increased by excessive sugar consumption, then that would weaken the conclusion; or if adrenaline levels of children who do NOT have ADD is increased by excessive sugar consumption, then it shows that the adrenaline levels of children with ADD will severely increase, making their ADD worse. I could be wrong in the way I negated this answer choice, but that was how I did it. I was also instructed to keep an eye out for answer choices with "not" in the statements.

Furthermore, while I was able to see that sugar consumption does increase adrenaline production, and if (D) is true, then sugar consumption could exacerbate ADD, I thought that maybe the answer choice could leave it open for something else other than sugar to increase adrenaline production.

Hope that all made sense! I would appreciate any help

[KelseyWoods]

Hi TigerPrince!

When negating answer choice (A), you should stick with your second way of negating it "The adrenaline level of children who do not have ADD IS increased by excessive sugar consumption." This negation doesn't really have any effect on the argument because the argument is only about children with ADD. If anything, the negation kind of strengthens the argument by reiterating that the adrenaline levels of children can be increased by excessive sugar consumption.

When deciding which "not" to remove, choose the one that doesn't change the group that the answer choice is addressing. The answer choice is about children without ADD, we don't want to change it to an answer choice about children with ADD. So, instead, take out the not that refers to the characteristic of the group (whether or not their adrenaline levels are increased by excessive sugar consumption).

As for answer choice (D), we already know from the premises that sugar consumption increases adrenaline. We need to find a link to show that the increase in adrenaline exacerbates ADD in children. The author tells us that sugar leads to increased adrenaline and concludes from that fact that sugar may exacerbate ADD. That means the author must have assumed that the increase in adrenaline exacerbates ADD. If we negated answer choice (D) to say that increased adrenaline does NOT make ADD more severe in children, this would attack the argument that sugar would exacerbate ADD because all we know about sugar is that it increases adrenaline.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[TigerPrince]

Thanks, Kelsey! I see why (D) is correct, and how to negate an answer choice like (A).