June 2007 PrepTest, Section 2, Question 13

By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024

Type: Sufficient Assumption

Difficulty:

Explanations

Wow, this took me more than one read-through. But basically, here’s what we have:
  1. 1.
    Regardless of brand, soda cans have the same amount of aluminum in any given can
  2. 2.
    100% of group L’s cans were recycled and made into group M cans.
  3. 3.
    50% of the aluminum in M comes from L’s cans
  4. 4.
    Non-aluminum can material is negligible
  5. 5.
    Conclusion? M has twice as many cans as L.
This seems to cover everything, but it’s missing one tiny piece: the recycling process. What if some (or a significant amount) of metal is lost during the recycling process?
A
This is just not relevant
B
Quality is not even discussed.
C
Yup, this is the missing piece. This would guarantee that the recycled L cans equal half of the total M cans since the L cans make up half the material.
D
It doesn’t matter if they were.
E
It doesn’t matter if they are easier to recycle.

Passage

Standard aluminum soft-drink cans do not vary in the amount

Question 13

The conclusion of the argument follows logically if which on