PrepTest 141, Section 4, 1. In an experiment, ten people were asked…

How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will add support for disagreeing with the conclusion, or for the opposite conclusion.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

chocolate interferes with one’s ability to taste coffee.

[BACKGROUND]. [SUPPORT]. [SUPPORT]. Clearly, then, [CONCLUSION].

You want to recognize the experiment is making a comparison between two groups. Even though there could be lots of other differences between the two groups of coffee-tasters that explain the results, the author only tells us about the chocolate thing. So expect the right answer to tell us that chocolate may not interfere with tasting coffee after all.

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) The ten people were randomly assigned…

This is all well and good, but it’s not just common sense that tells you how this relates to whether chocolate explains the results. You’d need to add in your own reasoning, which you’re not supposed to do. And even if you did, this answer might actually support the author’s conclusion.

(B) Similar results were achieved…

Exactly the same as (A). It’s not addressing the comparison, so it’s not clear how this is relevant based only on common sense. And if you think about it, this would also add support for the author’s conclusion.

(C) Chocolate is normally consumed…

Cool story. We’re trying to explain the experiment’s results though, and this doesn’t even mention the experiment or the coffee-tasters. Were the chocolate and coffee “normally consumed” in the experiment? We don’t know. This is totally unhelpful info either way.

(D) …they still detected no difference…

So even when there was no chocolate around, the results were the same. That definitely makes you question whether “chocolate interferes”, doesn’t it?

(E) Some subjects who tasted just coffee…

This is comparing some of the non-chocolate eaters to other non-chocolate eaters. That comparison doesn’t get made in the passage, aaand this answer doesn’t relate at all to whether “chocolate interferes”.

(D) is the correct answer.

Common pattern/s in this question: Another experiment, another comparison. If you recognize the pattern you’re a lot less likely to fall for wrong answers about how the experiment was done, or about chocolate and coffee generally.