CR: Yeasts capable of leavening bread

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

I do not know how to paraphrase an answer for this CR. Please help with the reasoning!

Yeasts capable of leavening bread are widespread, and in the many centuries
during which the ancient Egyptians made only unleavened bread, such yeasts must
frequently have been mixed into bread doughs accidentally. The Egyptians,
however, did not discover leavened bread until about 3000 B. C. That discovery
roughly coincided with the introduction of a wheat variety that was preferable to
previous varieties because its edible kernel could be removed from the husk
without first toasting the grain.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest evidence that the two
developments were causally related?

A. Even after the ancient Egyptians discovered leavened bread and the techniques
for reliably producing it were well known, unleavened bread continued to be
widely consumed.
B. Only when the Egyptians stopped the practice of toasting grain were their
stonelined grain-toasting pits available for baking bread.
C. Heating a wheat kernel destroys its gluten, a protein that must be present in
order for yeast to leaven bread dough.
D. The new variety of wheat, which had a more delicate flavor because it was not
toasted, was reserved for the consumption of high officials when it first began
to be grown.
E. Because the husk of the new variety of wheat was more easily removed, flour
made from it required less effort to produce.

[sunny.jain]

IMO : C

Author is talking about 2 things here:

1)Yeast used to be accidentally mixed into Bread raw material, But still they were not discovering its ability to leavened the bread.

2)They discover a new type of wheat, which doesn't require toasting in order to make bread from it. After this they discovered the Yeast.

So, The only difference between the new wheat and old wheat is that, New one doesn't need toasting. Option C says that Toasting destroyed the Yeast.

We can say that, because of toasting, yeast used to be destroyed so they were not discovered.
What is the OA?

[mayanknitc]

I too will go with 'C'..because the new type of wheat does not require toasting, yeast won't be destroyed..and leavened bread could be made.

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

OA is C

[RonPurewal]

well done by the posters above.

[bayer2000]

I don't understand this one and I don't usually get CR ones wrong so it is very frustrating. I could really use some help.

My problem with C) is that the information given tells you that HEATING the kernal of wheat deactivates the gluten IN THE KERNEL, the Gluten being active necessary to leaven the bread. But so what? Is the Kernel necessary to leaven bread? we know gluten is, but not the Kernel, so can't there be gluten in the rest of the wheat?

After doing some "grain research", I found that there is an intermediate process between making dough and heating it that releases the gluten from the grain so that it is not deactivated (or something like that but specifics don't really matter).

So, I guess the conclusion I come to is that C) forces you to infer the rest of the wheat making process in order for it to be correct. If it made clear that the gluten IN THE KERNEL is necessary to make bread, I would see it. B) Says that ovens are freed up to bake the bread. If you infer that baking bread is necessary to leaven it, that is also useful information. If they both require addition assumptions, why is C) better than B)?!?!?!?!?!?

[RonPurewal]

hi - a couple of responses.

I don't understand this one and I don't usually get CR ones wrong so it is very frustrating. I could really use some help.

if you "don't usually get CR ones wrong", then you may just be wasting your time by getting hung up on this one. remember, when you're studying verbal, it's much more important to understand the big picture of each question type than to stress out over the details of one particularly annoying problem.

My problem with C) is that the information given tells you that HEATING the kernal of wheat deactivates the gluten IN THE KERNEL, the Gluten being active necessary to leaven the bread. But so what? Is the Kernel necessary to leaven bread? we know gluten is, but not the Kernel, so can't there be gluten in the rest of the wheat?

the passage says
its edible kernel could be removed from the husk (emphasis mine)

this means that "kernel" is the edible part of the wheat. the husk - the other part of the wheat - is, therefore, irrelevant.

B) Says that ovens are freed up to bake the bread. If you infer that baking bread is necessary to leaven it, that is also useful information.

your mistake here is that you're reading the following text -
were their stonelined grain-toasting pits available for baking bread
- and you're mistakenly assuming that they had NOWHERE ELSE to bake the bread before this.
this is not said, or implied. in fact, this assumption is directly contradictory to the passage, which mentions "the many centuries during which the ancient Egyptians made only unleavened bread". if (b) is true, then they must have had somewhere else to bake that bread.
so (b) is irrelevant. all it really means is that they had more places to bake bread, not that the wonderful world of bread-baking was suddenly opened up to them.

[cseramit]

Hi Ron,

Encountered this question in GMAT Prep.
Can you help me with my confusion over the usage of the word 'Casually Related' in the statement of the question.

When we say that the two events are casually related. Doesn't it mean that the two are related by chance.

Option C however gives me an impression that the two were strongly related events.

Please help !

Thanks,
Amit

[messi10]

Hi Amit,

The word in the CR is "causally" not casually.

Regards

Sunil

[tim]

thanks Sunil..