To test the effectiveness of an allergy drug, scientists begin with a pool of 12,000 allergy sufferers. One randomly selected group of 6,000 subjects is given the drug, and the other 6,000 are given a pill without the active ingredient. They are asked to report their allergy symptoms after 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months of treatment, and samples are also taken to measure the levels of histamines (allergy-related compounds) in the blood. What is the experimental group in this study? 1. 6,000 subjects that are given the drug 2. 6,000 subjects that are given a pill without the active ingredient 3. presence or absence of the drug 4. reports of symptoms and levels of histamines in the blood