antarias90
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Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by antarias90 Sat Feb 02, 2013 4:02 pm

I can't understand why B would be the right answer. I originally had put A because it would justify why a Fresh parsley addition would need to be used versus a dried one.

To me, the prompt never says anything about the tastiest ingredients, at all times and during all situations, needs to be used.
 
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by fmuirhea Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:55 am

This is a principle strengthen question (so, similar to sufficient assumption) where you're looking for an answer choice that virtually guarantees that the conclusion follows from the premises.

P: dried parsley is less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley
C: dried parsley should never be used in cooking

The conclusion is quite strongly stated. Why shouldn't we ever use dried parsley? There are no guidelines given to us in the premises that would tell us when we can and cannot use certain herbs; they only state some facts about dried parsley.

We need an answer choice that shuts down this gap/shift: we move from parsley characteristics to an all-out prohibition on its use. Many principle strengthen questions are simply a matter of stating "if P, then C." (Although there was a much trickier one on this test: 2.16)

The strong term "only" in (B) sets up a conditional statement:

ever used in cooking --> tastiest ingredient

It's actually the contrapositive we're interested in:

~tastiest ingredient --> never used in cooking

Since the premise explicitly tells us that dried parsley is not the tastiest (i.e., it is less tasty than fresh parsley), this allows us to connect premise and conclusion. (An answer choice that claims that only the most healthful ingredients should ever be used would be just as fine, too.)

(A) actually isn't strong enough, since the conclusion says that parsley should never be used. If (A) were the case, it would give us a reason to choose fresh over dried provided both were available, but what if dried parsley were the only option? Could we use it then?

You're right that the prompt never says anything about using the tastiest ingredients all the time - for this question type, your task is to provide that missing piece! Think of principle strengthen and sufficient assumptions as giving you another premise. Once you add it in, does the conclusion follow?

P: dried parsley is less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley
P: ~tastiest --> never used in cooking
C: dried parsley should never be used in cooking
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by tommywallach Mon Feb 11, 2013 12:16 am

Amazing explanation from fmuirhea here.

As always, on principle questions, start with the Premise/Conclusion and then find a gap.

Premise: Dried parsley = less tasty+healthy than fresh
Conclusion: Don't use dried parsley

There are a number of possible assumptions here:

Anything with a tastier version should never be used
Anything with a healthier version should never be used
Anything with a better version in any way should never be used

(A) This isn't quite strong enough. This says "whenever possible," but the stimulus says "never".

(B) CORRECT. Imagine we took the opposite of this. You don't have to use the tastiest ingredients. Now, there's no real reason not to use dried prasley.

(C) Two problems here. First, we don't know that dried parsley isn't tasty or healthful; we only know it's less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley. Second problem is that "generally," which wouldn't necessarily apply to dried parsley.

(D) Same as the first problem in (C). We were never told dried parsley isn't healthful or tasty, only that it's less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley.

(E) Inferiority is neither here nor there. The question is what should we use to cook.

Hope that helps!

-t
#officialexplanation
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by dean.won Sat Sep 28, 2013 6:18 am

I thought B was wrong because ut didnt mention anything about healthfulness and so i thought it wasnt a strong enough answer for a principle support answer... IIRC principle support answers shouldnt leave out any detail.. is this wrong? I hate these "half right" correct answers
 
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by ganbayou Sat Oct 15, 2016 11:15 am

I was wondering why we do not need to think about "healthiness" here too...why??
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by ManhattanPrepLSAT1 Mon Oct 17, 2016 1:47 pm

ganbayou Wrote:I was wondering why we do not need to think about "healthiness" here too...why??

We don't need to consider "healthiness" because our goal is to justify the argument's conclusion, which is that dried parsley should never be used in cooking. We're given as a premise that dried parsley is LESS tasty and healthful than fresh parsley.

We have two things we know about dried parsley. It's less tasty and less healthful. A principle that bridges from one or both of those to the conclusion would support the argument's reasoning. So while we might expect the principle to use both pieces of information we know about dried parsley to justify the argument's conclusion, there's no need to do so.

Hope that helps!
 
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by miaohualiu2014 Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:15 am

Some previous posts asked why the correct answer didn't contain the "healthful" part. Here is my thought. If I was wrong, please share your ideas.

This question is actually a SA question.
P: Dried parsley is less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley is.
C: Dried parsley should never be used in cooking.
What is GAP?
anything that is not the tastiest and healthiest, should never be used in cooking.
~tastiest + ~healthiest—> ~cooking
contrapositive: cooking —> tastiest or healthiest

Answer (B) only the tastiest ingredients should ever be used in cooking.
Cooking —> Tastiest. It is an "or" relation on the right side, so we have to contain both "tastiest" and "healthiest".
(B) match the expectation.
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by ohthatpatrick Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:52 pm

We can't call this a Sufficient Assumption question, because the question stem does NOT tell us that our job is to fully derive the conclusion (it doesn't say the conclusion should follow logically or be properly drawn/inferred).

It uses the strengthening verbiage of "Which principle most helps to justify.

As it turns out, the correct answer IS a sufficient assumption. When you combine it with the evidence, it DOES let you derive the conclusion. But it is still a Principle-Support (Strengthen) question.

These very often act like Sufficient Assumption, but other times they just act like Strengthen, so we want to be flexible.
 
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Re: Q12 - Fresh versus dried parsley

by CarolineL560 Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:29 pm

A couple things... D is a perfect trap because it does mention those two factors and mentions parsley. However, relative words (less tasty) vs. absolute words (tasty) are ones I always hone in on, because the AC better follow that as well. D, as well as C, can be eliminated on the basis that they use absolute and not relative terms. Dried parsley can be very tasty and very healthful but still be LESS tasty and healthful than fresh parsley. C is also wrong because it reverses it, it's a false contrapositive.

I always put a huge circle around relative vs. absolute terms, as well as descriptive (x is __) vs normative (one should x) -- these are classic LSAT traps.