OE


Plumbed, static, dearth. The “growing gap between rich and poor” and the second “while” indicate a contrast in how much meat is consumed by different groups. The “wealthy few were eating more meat than ever,” so the masses must have suffered from a lack, or dearth, of foodstuffs. Glut (excessive supply) is the opposite, and deceleration (slowing down) could happen to the production/harvest of foodstuffs, but not to foodstuffs themselves. The second blank is a bit trickier: the truth is that the rich are eating more meat and the poor less, but the statistics, on their face, don’t make that clear. Thus, the statistics indicate that the amount of meat eaten remained the same, or was static. Plastic (artificial; flexible) has some definitions that are unrelated and others that are somewhat opposite to the fill-in. Demographic (related to structure of a population) is a theme trap. Finally, consider the surprising “growing gap” and the initial piece of evidence that “Statistics … need to be _______ for their real meaning” (emphasis added). Only plumbed, or examined closely, works in the first blank.