Q7 - The incidence in Japan

[jimmy902o]

First of all if this a strengthen question? Thats how I approached it.. i took the passage to mean that those Japanese immigrants who came to the US adopted the US diet, which caused them a higher risk of cancer and so i chose "E". Why is "D" correct? Thanks for any help!

[timmydoeslsat]

The question stem in this problem is not a strengthen! There is no conclusion in this stimulus. These are just a set of facts/statements.

A strengthen question that uses the word supports would look like this, for example:

"Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the argument above?"

That is a strengthen question.

This kind of question, however, is essentially a must be true, most strongly supported type of question stem.

"If the statements above are true, they provide the most support for which one of the following?"

Notice how this question stem is saying what one of these answer choices essentially follows from the stimulus.

At this point, I am sure that your thought process will change regarding this problem. I would revisit this problem and then read what I have to say below.


Answer choices:

A) We do not know the industrial pollution level of North America. Eliminate.

B) We know nothing of the stress of life of either Japan or North America. Eliminate.

C) Staple Japanese foods cure cancer? Eliminate.

D) I like this answer. The incidence of cancer is remarkably low in Japan. But when Japanese people immigrate to North America, they end up with the same rate of cancer as North Americans, which is stated as a high rate.

Since that is the case, wouldn't it support the idea that there is not some magical protective gene among Japanese people? It does.

E) Not only is fats a problem in this answer choice, but it also goes from a correlation in the premises to reaching to a causal factor.

Imagine if the stimulus said, "The cancer rates, however, for Japanese people who immigrate to North America and adopt the diet of North Americans and listen to the same popular radio stations and watch political news shows approximate the higher cancer rates prevalent in North America.

Notice that we only have a correlation with regard to diet of North Americans and cancer rates. I showed how ridiculous it would be to jump from a correlation to cause by showing other correlating factors like news shows and radio stations.

[jimmy902o]

Ah, I see now! I read over the word not in answer choice D. Thanks.

[rezamza]

Hey there,

I got this question correct, but just wanted some clarification regarding answer choice B...

I completely understand why the other answers are incorrect, but regardless of whether or not we know anything about stress levels in Japan and North America, if were told that they are higher in North America (and stress being a predisposition for cancer), this would clearly lead to a greater frequency of cancer in North Americans than in Japanese people.

Stress predisposes to cancer.
There is more stress in North American life than in Japanese life.
Therefore there is a greater incidence of cancer in North America than in Japan, also explaining why those who emigrate to North America soon develop a cancer rate comparable to that of North Americans.

I further understand that nothing about this answer choice is mentioned in the stimulus, but neither is anything in answer choice D...genetic traits? While genetics may not account for the lower rates of cancer in Japan, lower stress levels might...

Any thoughts?

[YiX773]

I got this one but now I'm a little bit confused.

What if it is the case that some unique genes prevent the cancer but when people immigrate to North America somehow the genes were destroyed and gone?

Maybe in a MMS quetion other posibilities are allowed but still D is most strongly supported?

[YiX773]

I got this one but now I'm a little bit confused.

What if it is the case that some unique genes prevent the cancer but when people immigrate to North America somehow the genes were destroyed and gone?

Maybe in a MMS quetion other posibilities are allowed but still D is most strongly supported?

I mean the answer choice D assumes that the gene will not change when Janpanese immigrate. Can I say that?