Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT104 S1 Q12 Explanation

Clothes made from natural fibers

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Stimulus

Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made from artificial fibers such as polyester often shrink when washed at high temperatures. The reason for this shrinkage is that natural fibers are tightly curled in their original state. Since the manufacturer of cloth requires straight fibers, natural fibers are artificially cause all fibers in cloth to return to their original states.

What this question is testing

Most Supported

Premises

Here's the picture: cotton fibers are naturally curled. To turn them into cloth, manufacturers stretch them straight. When you wash cotton at high heat, the fibers snap back to curled — that's why your shirt shrinks. Polyester clothes don't shrink.

One more important fact: high heat returns all fibers to their original state, not just natural ones.

Evaluate

Now think about polyester. High heat returns it to its original state too — but polyester clothes don't shrink. The fiber doesn't change shape when heated. So whatever its original state is, it must already match its in-cloth state, which is straight.

Putting it together: polyester (and other artificial fibers) must already be straight in their original state.

Goal

Find the answer that says: artificial fibers are straight in their original state.

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The question
12.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported2% picked this

    Washing clothes made from natural fibers at low temperatures causes the fibers

    The stimulus tells us high temperatures return fibers to their original state. It says nothing about what low temperatures do, and certainly nothing about whether low temperatures cause natural fibers to straighten. This goes beyond the information given.

  2. Unsupported1% picked this

    High temperatures have no effect on the straightness of fibers in clothes made from a blend of

    If a cloth blends natural and artificial fibers, the natural fibers in it should still curl up at high temperatures (they're still natural fibers, with the same physical behavior). The blend would still shrink to some extent. The stimulus gives us no reason to believe that mixing fibers eliminates the high-temperature effect on the natural ones.

  3. Out of Scope8% picked this

    Clothes made from natural fibers stretch more easily than do clothes made

    The stimulus is about shrinkage and the curl/straighten behavior of fibers under high temperatures. Stretchiness is a different physical property. Nothing in the passage tells us anything about how easily fabrics stretch.

  4. Unsupported8% picked this

    If natural fibers that have been straightened and used for cloth are curled up again by high temperatures,

    The stimulus says natural fibers can be artificially straightened — full stop. It doesn't say the straightening can happen only once or that re-curled fibers can't be straightened again. (D) introduces a one-time-only rule that the passage doesn't support.

  5. Correct80% picked this

    Artificial fibers are straight in their

    Why this is right

    This follows directly. High temperatures return all fibers (including artificial ones) to their original state. Yet clothes made of artificial fibers do not shrink at high temperatures — meaning the artificial fibers don't change shape. The only way artificial fibers can return to their original state without changing shape is if their original state is already the straight configuration they're in inside the cloth. So artificial fibers must be straight in their original state.

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

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