QUESTION TEXT: A person's dietary consumption of cholesterol and…
QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported
FACTS:
- Dietary fat and cholesterol affect the level of cholesterol in our blood.
- Blood cholesterol increases as you eat more fat and cholesterol…until you hit a certain level.
- Past that level, dietary fat and cholesterol don’t have much effect.
- Average American fat and cholesterol intake is four times higher than the threshold level.
ANALYSIS: It seems safe to conclude that American blood cholesterol won’t change much due to their fat and cholesterol intake, unless they radically cut consumption. They’re four times above the threshold.
Two of the wrong answers assume you’re not sure what a threshold is. A threshold is a level of something, beyond which an effect occurs.
For example, suppose you have a pool. The top of the pool is a threshold. If you add too much water, it spills over the top. You can change the threshold, perhaps by building a bigger or smaller pool. But you can’t change the threshold by adding water, since water is what the threshold measures.
___________
- This is nonsense. Thresholds, by definition, don’t change based on a change in the thing they measure.
Meaning: maybe you can raise the threshold of fat. Maybe you can eat more fat by exercising more.
But you can’t change the threshold of fat you can eat by eating more or less fat. - Actually, the opposite is supported. American fat and cholesterol consumption is far above the threshold. That means that eating more fat and cholesterol will hardly affect blood cholesterol.
- CORRECT. This is true. Past the threshold, blood cholesterol hardly changes. And even half the typical amount of fat and cholesterol is far above threshold.
- The passage never mentioned non-dietary ways to affect cholesterol. We know nothing about them.
- Actually, diet has the biggest effect when you’re under the threshold.
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