In a recent study, a group of subjects had their normal daily caloric intake increased by 25 percent.
Information
Group A had their normal daily caloric intake increased by 25%, entirely in the form of alcohol.
Group B had alcohol replace 25% of their normal daily caloric intake.
All subjects gained body fat, and the amount of body fat gained was the same for both groups.
Evaluate
On Inference questions we're trying to figure out whether a given question is testing us on Conditional, Causal, Mathematical, or Comparison based thinking.
This one seems to be testing Causality / Math / Comparisons.
Let's consider some numbers, to help us with the math. We'll say that the average daily caloric intake for all subjects was 1000 calories per day (yes, that's low, but let's keep the math easy).
Group A: 1000 calories of normal diet + 250 calories of alcohol Group B: 750 calories of normal diet + 250 calories of alcohol
They all gained the same amount of body fat. That's pretty surprising since Group A was eating 1250 calories a day and Group B was eating 1000 calories a day.
It looks like the 250 calories of alcohol caused the same gain in body fat, regardless of whether the rest of the diet was 1000 or 750 calories.
Goal
It's pretty hard to guess how to turn this into a correct answer choice, but let's expect something causal/math-y relating to this idea that the 250 calories of alcohol seemed to cause the same amount of body fat, whether the rest of the diet was 1000 or 750 calories. (naturally, it won't use our made up numbers)