#1726

[larissadavis13]

Can you please walk me thought the thought process to arrive at the correct answer for this question?

Nutrition advocate: This country must implement new policies to combat our obesity epidemic. Inaction is not an option. Despite recent and trendy interest in “organic” and “healthy” foods, childhood obesity is skyrocketing; this is rapidly putting us on a trajectory to become a nation of overfed, inactive slobs. What is perceived as a “serving size” today is many times the mass of what was considered a serving 50 years ago, when adults had much healthier body weights.

Which of the following is mentioned as an opposing point to the main conclusion?

1) There has been a recent rise in popularity of organic and healthy foods.

2) The popularity of organic and healthy foods will mitigate some of the effects of the rise in childhood obesity rates.

[ohthatpatrick]

Sure.

Normally, an opposing point would be something that appears EARLIER in a paragraph, and then the author would pivot with a but/yet/however into her actual rebuttal argument.

So given this question stem, I would go into reading the paragraph with that kind of assumption in mind.

"Nutrition advocate: This country must implement new policies to combat our obesity epidemic. Inaction is not an option. Despite recent and trendy interest in “organic” and “healthy” foods, childhood obesity is skyrocketing; this is rapidly putting us on a trajectory to become a nation of overfed, inactive slobs. What is perceived as a “serving size” today is many times the mass of what was considered a serving 50 years ago, when adults had much healthier body weights."

It did NOT use that formula. Instead, the argument begins with an opinionated conclusion. The giveaway for the counterpoint was the one contrast keyword we saw: "Despite"

CONCLUSION: We must implement policies to combat the obesity epidemic

EVIDENCE: Inaction is not an option. Childhood obesity is skyrocketing. We're going to be a nation of overfed slobs. Our modern "service size" is many times what it used to be.

The opposing point was saying
"There IS a recent trend towards interest in healthy, organic foods, but ..... " [we still need to take action about obesity]

So looking at the answers,
1) There has been a recent rise in popularity of organic and healthy foods.
2) The popularity of organic and healthy foods will mitigate some of the effects of the rise in childhood obesity rates.

They both relate to our opposing point, but #2 was never said. #1 was said. So #1 is the answer.