SAT Reading & Writing · Cross-Text Connections
**Text 1** Nutritional studies have long noted that beta-carotene, an antioxidant compound abundant in many fruits and vegetables, is…
**Text 1**
Nutritional studies have long noted that beta-carotene, an antioxidant compound abundant in many fruits and vegetables, is associated with diets linked to lower rates of certain cancers, leading to interest in beta-carotene as a potential protective supplement.
**Text 2**
Randomized controlled trials that gave beta-carotene supplements specifically to smokers, a group at elevated cancer risk, found that the supplemented group had a higher rate of lung cancer than the group given a placebo, prompting one such trial to be stopped early.
Which choice best explains the apparent conflict between the findings described in the two texts?
Nutritional studies have long noted that beta-carotene, an antioxidant compound abundant in many fruits and vegetables, is associated with diets linked to lower rates of certain cancers, leading to interest in beta-carotene as a potential protective supplement.
**Text 2**
Randomized controlled trials that gave beta-carotene supplements specifically to smokers, a group at elevated cancer risk, found that the supplemented group had a higher rate of lung cancer than the group given a placebo, prompting one such trial to be stopped early.
Which choice best explains the apparent conflict between the findings described in the two texts?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D: Beta-carotene's association with a health benefit as part of a food-based diet may not extend to the same compound delivered as a concentrated supplement to a specific high-risk population, such as…
The key distinctions the texts actually supply, dietary association versus concentrated supplement, and general population versus a specific high-risk group (smokers), are exactly what D identifies as the likely source of the apparent conflict. A overstates Text 2 into a blanket claim about all contexts, when the finding is specific to smokers and supplement form. C invents a methodological flaw neither text supports. B misreads the texts, which both discuss the same compound, beta-carotene.
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