PrepTest 123, 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.Regardless of brand, soda cans have the same amount of aluminum in any given can
- 2.100% of group L’s cans were recycled and made into group M cans.
- 3.50% of the aluminum in M comes from L’s cans
- 4.Non-aluminum can material is negligible
- 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 of aluminum that they contain. Fifty percent of the aluminum contained in a certain group (M) of standard aluminum soft-drink cans was recycled from another group (L) of used, standard aluminum soft-drink cans. Since all the cans in L were recycled into cans in M and since the amount of material other than aluminum in an aluminum can is negligible, it follows that M contains twice as many cans as L.
Question 13
The conclusion of the argument follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?
The aluminum in the cans of M cannot be recycled further.
Recycled aluminum is of poorer quality than unrecycled aluminum.
All of the aluminum in an aluminum can is recovered when the can is recycled.
None of the soft-drink cans in group L had been made from recycled aluminum.
Aluminum soft-drink cans are more easily recycled than are soft-drink cans made from other materials.