#11 - In the past, infants who were not breast-fed were fed

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

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

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[T14Hopeful]

I am quite confused between A and B. Can a tutor help to explain?

We know that boiling cow milk is correlated with overall deficiency in vitamin C, whereas mother’s milk isn’t correlated with this deficiency. However, it seems to me that we have no idea what’s the amount of vitamin C per unit quantity of milk in each type of milk. That’s the issue I see with A.

But B says “frequently contract”. Had this answer said something like “can/possible” (for MBT inference) or “sometimes contract” (for MSS), then it might be right. So B also seems problematic.

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey T14 hopeful,

First, I hope you get into your t14 school of choice down the road.

Second, I would say the stimulus is strongly suggesting that drinking cows milk is the cause for the increased scurvy because of a lack of vitamin C. So I really liked answer choice A off the bat.

Then answer choice B, I also liked, because the stimulus seemed to suggest that unboiled cows milk could cause gastronomical infections potentially fatal to infants.

The remainder of the answer choices can then be eliminates as non contenders. So then we can take a deeper dive into A and B, understanding this is a very difficult question where we will have to make a judgment call as to which answer choice has the most support, and also understanding that neither answer choice is anywhere in the vicinity of perfect or definitively true. We are simply looking for the answer choice with the most support or an answer choice with the least amount of doubt around it.

So, answer choice A. My issue here is that, we don't know that the milk is the cause for the deficiency in vitamin C leading to scurvy. It could just be correlation.

With answer choice B, we did not have any cases of gastronomical infections in the stimulus. Doctors just simply wanted to prevent gastronomical infections. So we have no idea whether babies ever "frequently" contracted potentially fatal gastronomical infections. (Frequently is like the same as many. So more than some, but not an identifiable number.)

On a judgement call, I would go with A, simply because the doctors advised for boiling milk as a preventative measure, so we have no idea whether babies frequently contracted the gastronomical infections.

This is a very difficult must be true question, and I hope my explanation helps you. I wish you all the luck in your studies.

Best,
Ryan

[toddburtron@gmail.com]

Please help me understand why D is not a contender.

"When doctors advised that cow's milk fed to infants should be boiled, they did not know that scurvy was caused by vitamin C deficiency"

I read A and I don't object to it but D seems as thought it hits all the important elements of support. (Note: I've been studying everyday - many hours per day- since late April 2021 and I simply feel as thought all of the information is blurring my understanding and ability to distinguish the finer details)...

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Todd,

I'm not sure what you mean by support. Remember here we are in a MBT/MSS question where the stimulus drives the determination of what must follow in the answer choices. For answer choice (D), we have no idea based on the stimulus what the doctors did or did not know about scurvy at the time they made the recommendation. There is nothing we can point to in the stimulus to support that answer choice. Answer choice (A) however is supported. We know that some of the babies who had boiled cow's milk had an illness caused by a vitamin C deficiency, whereas the breast-fed babies did not have the illness. Thus we can support that the answer choice that says that breast-fed babies have more vitamin C available then the babies who drank boiled cow's milk.

Hope that helps!