Logical Reasoning

PT101 · S3 · Q11 Special kinds of cotton that grow

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Special kinds of cotton that grow fibers of green or brown have been around since the 1930s but only recently became commercially feasible when a long-fibered variety that can be spun by machine was finally bred.

Statements

Since 1930, we've known about about cotton that can grow green or brown fibers.

Pivot / Causal

But only recently, it became commercially feasible when a long-fibered version that can be spun by machine came out.

Since the cotton didn't need to be dyed (naturally green or brown), it saved money and prevented a hazardous waste product.

Evaluate

The first sentence allows us to infer a causal relationship between being commercially feasible and being able to be machine spun.

Correct answers sometimes reinforce these Causal Difference-Maker.

started breeding ⇢ can be spun ⇢ commercially long-fibered kind by machine viable

It's simultaneously the case that this has a cost savings and an ecological benefit.

Goal

It's hard to know what they're going for here, so prioritize safer wording.

11.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

  1. It is ecologically safer to

    Too Strong

    We know only about one ecological advantage that long-fibered green/brown cotton has (don't have to dye it, so don't have to dispose of dye). But we don't know enough about other possible ecological differences to crown is the "ecologically safer" option. Also this answer is about all long-fibered cotton, when we have only heard about a long-fibered variety of this special green/brown cotton.

    17% picked this

  2. Correct

    Green and brown cottons that

    Why this is right

    This reinforces a causal difference-maker

    Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    68% picked this

  3. Hand-spun cotton is more ecologically

    Out of Scope

    We haven't heard anything about hand-spun cotton so far. We can assume that the cotton that predated machine spun cotton was hand-spun, but we only know that it wasn't commercially viable. If anything, we have support to undermine this answer, since the one machine-spun cotton we hear about (the green/brown variety) apparently has some ecological advantage over normal dyed cotton.

    2% picked this

  4. Short-fibered regular cottons are economically

    Out of Scope: synthetic fabrics

    We don't know anything about short-fibered regular cottons, and we know even less about synthetic fibers. We couldn't possibly derive their relative market positions from this paragraph.

    1% picked this

  5. Garments made of green and

    Out of Scope: sales prices

    We know that the cost of dye is cheaper for green/brown cottons than for regular cotton. But we wouldn't be able to comment on whether the overall cost of using green/brown cotton is cheaper, because who knows how the growing / harvesting / transportation costs compare to those of regular cotton. And even if we knew the relative costs of green/brown vs. regular cotton, we wouldn't be able to speculate about their relative retail prices, i.e. what customers end up paying to purchase garments made out of each type of material.

    12% picked this

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