hard · GMAT Verbal
After populations adopted farming, average adult height fell and tooth-decay rates rose — signs of poorer nutrition. Yet farming populations grew far faster than the foraging groups they replaced. Skeletal samples used to gauge health are drawn only from individuals who survived to adulthood and were buried in recoverable sites.
Which of the following can be most properly inferred from the statements above?
- On the whole, farming worsened the nutrition of the average person who lived during the agricultural transition.
- The skeletal evidence may understate how much farming harmed health, because it omits those who died before adulthood.
- Foraging populations were unquestionably healthier than farming populations on every single measure of physical health.
- The faster population growth seen among farmers clearly shows that the shift to farming improved people's overall well-being.
- The observed increase in tooth decay was caused by the very same underlying factor that reduced adult height.
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