- Mon Apr 21, 2025 12:30 pm
#112663
Hi futurepresident,
This is a Resolve the Paradox question. In these questions, the stimulus provides two facts that seem odd together, almost as if they contradict each other at face value. What you're looking for is an answer that allows both sides of the paradox to be true and explains how this is possible or somehow sheds light on the seemingly odd situation.
What you are not looking to do is disprove one of the facts.
The first step in solving these questions is to identify the paradox and understand why it seems like a paradox. Here, fact one is that "most doctors recommend that pregnant women eat a nutritious diet to promote the health of their babies." This seems like pretty straightforward reasonable advice. However, fact two states that "most babies who are born to women who ate nutritious diets still develop at least one medical problem in the first year." The reason that these facts seem odd together/surprising is that one would expect these babies not to have any medical problems if these women followed their doctor's advice.
Of course, it isn't necessarily that surprising because the doctor's advice may still be a good idea at reducing the number of medical problems babies will have/improving their overall health, even it the nutritious diet isn't able to eliminate all medical problems.
Answer C addresses this very issue. If women who do not eat a nutritious diet have babies with more health problems than babies of women who not eat a nutritious diet, this explains why the doctors recommend that pregnant women eat a nutritious diet (fact 1) while also allowing for the fact that babies can still have medical problems even if the mother eats a nutritious diet (fact 2). The nutritious diet simply reduces the number of medical problems of the babies without eliminating them altogether.
None of the other answers explain/support both sides of the paradox.
