Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S4 · Q16 In an effort to boost milk

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In an effort to boost milk production, some dairy farmers are treating cows with a genetically engineered hormone called BST.

Information

pseudo-causal (in an effort to X, doing Y)

Treating cows with BST is supposed to boost milk production.

comparisons BST-treated milk and untreated milk have same nutritional value.

BST-cows have a greater risk of infection and hence (causal) are more likely to be given antibiotics, which may show up in milk.

weak-causal (may be harmful) High levels of these antibiotics may be harmful to humans.

pivot (Yet) BST-treated milk and untreated milk are both regularly screened

Evaluate

Wow, this is quite a shapeless pile of facts. There are some causal and comparative ideas, but none that chain together or seem to have more emphasis than the others.

However, the final claim begins with a pivot idea. We know that when Must Be True or Most Supported paragraphs have a final claim that starts with a pivot, usually the correct answer sounds like what you get by Reconciling the Pivot idea with what came before it.

They had just scared us with the ideas that BST cows get more antibiotics and that antibiotics may show up in milk and may be harmful to humans.

But then they say that all milk is screened for antibiotics. So ... are we good then?

Goal

It's hard to predict what the answer will say, so let's just look for the most provable choice we're offered.

16.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

  1. Consumer groups have no legitimate

    Too Strong: no legit reasons

    The final sentence does tamp down the fear about antibiotics ending up in our milk, but it's much stronger to suddenly say there are zero legitimate reasons for opposing the use of BST. Maybe BST does a lot of other weird things to cows or has bad environmental effects or has other health threats to humans.

    5% picked this

  2. Milk from BST-treated cows is

    Too Strong: as safe

    We know that BST-cows are more likely to get antibiotics and that it would be bad for humans to consume milk with antibiotics in it. So just that already makes it hard to sign off on an extreme comparison that BST-milk and untreated milk is equally safe. And even if the milk is screened, that would only tell us that antibiotics aren't a safety threat. There might be other safety threats that weren't discussed by the passage.

    21% picked this

  3. There is no advantage to

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: no advantage Opposite, if anything It's hinted at that there is an advantage to the use of BST. It's thought to potentially boost milk production. We don't have any way to support the strong claim that there is no advantage to the use of BST.

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    Milk from BST-treated cows can

    Why this is right

    This is definitely very strongly worded. But ultimately it's our most supportable answer. The contrapositive would say, "If milk from BST-cows has not been successfully screened for high levels of antibiotics (i.e. the test showed it does not have high antibiotics", then you can't presume it's safe". This idea isn't as strong as it first looks because the conditional isn't saying that the milk is or isn't safe. It's talking about whether it would be safe to presume it's safe. You can "presume" something is safe if you have no reason to think it might be unsafe. But we do have a reason to think that BST might be unsafe. BST cows are more often given antibiotics, which can show up in milk and which can be harmful to humans if they show up in high levels. So this answer is really just saying, "If you haven't already screened this BST milk for high antibiotics and determined that it is free from antibiotics, then you should know that there is a chance it is high in antibiotics in a harmful way."

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

    67% picked this

  5. The only threat posed by

    Too Strong: the only

    Just because high antibiotics is the only threat that was discussed doesn't mean we can infer that it's the only possible threat from BST milk.

    6% picked this

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