If you choose the singular form of rate, then the sentence of "The rate . . . is about the same" is meaningless since you cannot have a valid comparison between two countries using only one rate. What the stimulus want to say is that the rate of food consumption in France and the rate of food consumption in US are about the same, but the death rates in these two countries are different.
In fact, if you pay attention to the words "death rates" in the stimulus, you already know the right choice of words in either D or E - rates!
-- by 会员 sdcar2010 (2011/1/24 2:54:22)