#16 - In an effort to boost milk production, some dairy

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[AlexWilfert]

Just wanted to confirm something here.

Operating with the reminder in mind that MSS questions are about the BEST answer not a perfect one, D is correct because of the conditional negation? It felt super strong at first but given the other answers were also "Losers" D would be the best because the stimulus tells you the antibiotics are harmful yet the milk is regularly screened. Hence if it isn't screened, it has the potential to be harmful. I.E Not presumed safe.

These testmakers are getting reallll tricky.

[Beatrice Brown]

Hi Alex! Thanks so much for your great question

Yes, answer choice (D) is correct because if we take the contrapositive of the conditional, we get the following: if milk from BST cows is not successfully screened for high levels of antibiotics, it cannot be presumed safe for humans. The stimulus tells us that high levels of antibiotics given to BST-treated cows can be harmful to humans, as well as that screening is performed on the milk of both treated and untreated cows. So if we don't screen the milk from these cows to determine if there are high levels of antibiotics, then we cannot know whether or not the milk is safe for humans since these treated cows are more likely to be given antibiotics. In other words, answer choice (D) properly combines facts in the stimulus to draw a reasonably supported inference. The tricky thing about answer choice (D) is the fact that it's presented as a conditional statement!

As you noted, the rest of the answer choices are not supported by the stimulus:

Answer choice (A) is incorrect because the author of the stimulus does not suggest whether or not he thinks the consumer groups are justified in opposing the use of BST.
Answer choice (B) is incorrect because the author never compares the relative safety of milk from treated vs. untreated cows. All we know is that the milk from both groups of cows is screened, but this doesn't tell us anything about their relative safety.
Answer choice (C) is incorrect because the stimulus does not discuss whether there are advantages to the use of BST.
Answer choice (E) is incorrect because we do not know that this is the only threat from drinking the milk of treated cows; all we know is that this is one possible danger to drinking the milk.

To sum up, process of elimination can be extremely helpful on Most Strongly Supported questions! If you can eliminate all four wrong answer choices confidently because they do not have any support in the stimulus, you can select the remaining answer choice once you make sure that there is information presented in the stimulus to support it.

I hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions!

[christinecwt]

Hi Team - may I know why Answer Choice B is wrong and why Answer Choice D is correct given that the stimulus did not mention whether the screening for high level or low level antibiotics? Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

christinecwt,

We don't know if the milk is safe - there are reasons to think it's not. It would be much more reassuring if we knew the levels of antibiotics, which seem to be the key safety issue discussed in the stimulus. So when answer choice (B) just presumes the milk is safe without qualification, we're going to hesitate - what about the antibiotics? Answer choice (D) does not automatically presume safety, but makes it depend on a "successful" screening for high levels of antibiotics. As you said, the stimulus doesn't say whether the screening is for high or low levels, but...doesn't that just mean that, if the screening is NOT for high levels, then we wouldn't count it as a good test of safety? To the extent that there's a difference between screening for low levels and screening for high levels, because high levels are the dangerous levels, a screening for high levels should be what's necessary to ensure the safety of the milk. I don't think there's any need for the stimulus to mention the nature of the screening that specifically - since high levels matter, a screening for high levels would be the appropriate requirement.

Robert Carroll

[aspiringdefender]

I knew that all the other answer choices were wrong, but I still didn't like D because of the term "only if". I felt that this term is too strong, and that there could be other ways that milk could be deemed safe that are not specifically addressed by the stimulus. The stimulus simply addresses one way to test for the safety of milk, but that doesn't mean that it is the "only" way.

If the term "only if" was removed from answer D, I would have not hesitated in choosing it. What am I missing?

[Dana D]

Hey aspiring,

This is a MSS question, which means we can only use the information presented in the stimulus to identify an answer choice that is correct. We're only told about antibiotic screening as a method to test for safety, so we can assume that is the only method at hand here. It doesn't make sense for the stimulus to always include the clarifing statement "there are no other methods to use" or something similar.

Now if this was a weaken question, you could absolutely weaken ansswer choice (D) by saying there are other methods to test milk, but here the LSAT doesn't need you to have outside knowledge and antibiotic testing is the only method presented.

But also - answer choice (D) is most strongly supported - that doesn't mean there's not another method to test out there, but with the information we were given, it seems most likely that we can deduce that answer choice (D) is correct. MSS questions make us look for answers that are not MBT - there is a little wiggle room in certainty.

Hope that helps!