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Information and IdeasVery hardInference from mixed effects

Information and Ideas practice question

Runners in a marathon were offered free energy gels at the 30-kilometre mark. Average times over the final 12 kilometres improved slightly, but the number of runners dropping out after 30 kilometres also rose. The most reasonable interpretation is that ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. the gels helped some runners while upsetting others enough to force them out of the race.Correct
  2. B. the gels made every runner faster.
  3. C. the gels had no effect on the runners.
  4. D. the runners who dropped out had refused the gels.

Answer: A. the gels helped some runners while upsetting others enough to force them out of the race.

Faster finishers on average and more dropouts: two opposite effects on two groups fits both figures.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. the gels made every runner faster.
More dropouts contradicts 'every runner faster'.
C. the gels had no effect on the runners.
Both times and dropouts changed.
D. the runners who dropped out had refused the gels.
Nothing in the text says who took the gels; the rise in dropouts after the gel point suggests the opposite.

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