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ManhattanPrepLSAT1
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Atticus Finch
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Re: Q9 - All laundry detergents

by ManhattanPrepLSAT1 Fri Dec 31, 1999 8:00 pm

Question Type
Weaken

Stimulus
The argument concludes that there is no reason to suppose that laundry detergents that are advertised as ecologically friendly are less damaging to the environment than other laundry detergents. The support for this view is that most of the ingredients in laundry detergents, including the so-called ecologically friendly ones, have unknown environmental effects. However, it's important to note that the argument also mentions surfactants, which is known to have damaging environmental effects. And we learn that all laundry detergents have surfactants.

Anticipate
The big question is whether one laundry detergent can be less harmful to the environment than another even though they both have the same environmentally damaging ingredient. One might suspect that that having less of the environmentally damaging ingredient could influence the amount of environmental damage that is to be expected from the use of one laundry detergent or another.

Correct Answer
(A) weakens the argument by providing a reason why ecologically friendly laundry detergents might do less damage to the environment, namely that they have less of the known environmentally damaging ingredient (i.e., surfactants).

Incorrect Answers
(B) is out of scope. While there is a question about the environmental impact of ingredients other than surfactants, the argument does not assume that those other ingredients either do, or do not, harm the environment.

(C) is not specific enough. This answer choice does not indicate which laundry detergents use the less damaging sort of surfactants. Notice that answer choice (A) provides a reason why ecologically friendly laundry detergents might be safer (lower amount of surfactants) but that the reason in this choice for less environmental damage (different kind of surfactants) is not assigned to any particular kind of laundry detergent.

(D) is out of scope for the same reason answer choice (B) is.

(E) is out of scope. We are not concerned about how effective each brand of laundry detergent is, but rather what the environmental impact would be of using it.

#officialexplanation
 
kky215
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Vinny Gambini
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Q9 - All laundry detergents

by kky215 Sat Aug 31, 2013 5:49 am

Why is C wrong?
Is it because it is too general in scope? (by stating "laundry detergents" instead of "laundry detergents that are advertised as ecologically friendly"?)

Can anyone elaborate?
 
nbayar1212
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Re: Q9 - All laundry detergents

by nbayar1212 Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:01 pm

I think you got it.

We are looking for an AC that gives us a reason to doubt the conclusion i.e. possibly make us think that we DO have a reason to think detergents that are advertised as ecologically friendly are better for the environment.

AC C doesn't help us conclude one way or the other because it doesn't provide us a reason to think the ecologically friendly ones are better than standard detergents or vice versa.
 
akters
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Re: Q9 - which one of the following most weakens

by akters Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:44 am

I was also stuck between A & C, but after examining the argument more closely, I realized that C does not weaken as much as A.

C states that "Different KINDS of laundry detergents contain different KINDS of surfactants ...." hence, C is referring to various types of laundry detergents which vary in the amount of harm they could potentially cause.

However, the conclusion of the argument is about ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY detergents: "Therefore, there is not reason to suppose that laundry detergents advertised as ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY are less damaging to the environment than other laundry detergents are."

A weakens because it addresses ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY detergents:

A states, "Laundry detergents that are advertised as ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY contain lower amounts of surfactants, on average, than do other laundry detergents."

Hope this helps! =)
 
jin.yoshikawa
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Re: Q9 - All laundry detergents

by jin.yoshikawa Sat May 21, 2016 5:40 pm

I still prefer answer choice C over A.

If A were true, then EF laundry detergents have lower amounts of surfactants, but nothing is mentioned in the premise that the concentration of the surfactants is relevant to how harmful the LD is. In fact, just the mere presence of surfactants, whether it is merely a single drop, could kill aquatic life and additional amounts of surfactants do nothing. In order for A to weaken the argument, it requires the assumption that concentration of surfactants is correlated to the amount of harm it causes aquatic life.

If C were true, it is inferred that there are LDs that cause less harm than others. This answer choice does require an additional assumption that the EF LD are the ones with the less harmful surfactants. However, I don't see how this is a bigger assumption than what answer choice A requires.

What do you think?