#15 - The consistency of ice cream is adversely affected by

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

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

Due to the cost of keeping ice cream in very low temperatures, manufacturers are forced to add stabilizers in order to maintain its consistency. Unfortunately, stabilizers adversely affect its flavor. In other words, cost considerations require a trade-off between the consistency and flavor of ice cream.

Answer choice (A): Deviating from the proper consistency of ice cream is not what impairs its flavor; stabilizers do. In fact, there no information to suggest that consistency itself has any impact on the ice cream flavor, or vice versa. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): On the contrary: since adding stabilizers maintains the consistency of ice cream but has an adverse effect on its flavor, cost considerations favor sacrificing flavor over sacrificing consistency. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): This answer choice presents new information that is completely unsupported by the given facts. The cost of new technologies to maintain freezer temperatures is unknown.

Answer choice (D): This answer choice is in direct contradiction with the stimulus: stabilizers are needed to maintain the consistency of ice cream precisely because they function well at high freezer temperatures.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. Indeed, low stable freezer temperatures do not require us to add stabilizers to maintain the consistency of ice cream and therefore do not adversely affect its flavor. Because no trade-off is necessary, such temperatures allow for the best possible consistency and flavor.

[reop6780]

I chose B based upon the last sentence, "However ~." As long as cost is considered, temperature is kept higher damaging consistency directly.

I do not see why B should be eliminated.
(*Flavor is damaged by stabilizer, which is used to keep consistency. Hence, higher temperature appear to affect both of flavor and consistency. However, consistency is directly impaired by higher temperature meanwhile flavor is damaged after the use of stabilizer.)

E can be the right answer, but I was not quite convinced whether the following statement, "...allow for the best" must be true.
(* isn't "the best" exaggerated?)

Thank you

Hyun Kim

[David Boyle]

On page 32, question number 42, the answer is E.

I chose B based upon the last sentence, "However ~." As long as cost is considered, temperature is kept higher damaging consistency directly.

I do not see why B should be eliminated.
(*Flavor is damaged by stabilizer, which is used to keep consistency. Hence, higher temperature appear to affect both of flavor and consistency. However, consistency is directly impaired by higher temperature meanwhile flavor is damaged after the use of stabilizer.)

E can be the right answer, but I was not quite convinced whether the following statement, "...allow for the best" must be true.
(* isn't "the best" exaggerated?)

Thank you

Hyun Kim

Dear Hyun:

"allow for the best" is o.k., because it doesn't force the ice cream to be the best, but it takes away some obstacles to superior ice cream, such as temperature fluctuations, or the need for excessive stabilizers.
If consistency and flavor are both hurt by higher temperature, then maybe the issue is not sacrificing one for the other. (Maybe consistency is hurt more directly by higher temperature; but maybe indirect hurting, as with stabilizer hurting flavor, is bad too.) Also, there may be other cost considerations besides electricity.

David

[reop6780]

Hi, David !

I'm afraid I may have had too many questions at once.

Thanks to your sincere replies, I am less nervous to approach the remaining MBT questions.

I somehow gained ideas that clarified ambiguous points that I had about MBT.

Thank you so much again for the explanation !

Hyun Kim

[lunsandy]

Hi Powerscore,

After reading David's explanation, I think I have a grasp of what he is trying to say, but I am not completely certain and have few more follow-up questions.

I also eliminated E because of "best." Can it be said that "allow for the best POSSIBLE" lessens the strength of "best." So in other words, from the stim. all we know from the possible worlds is that very low, stable freezer temperature is the best POSSIBLE because low stable freezer temperature would require less stabilizers (so better tasting) and thus gives us better consistency and flavour of ice cream than the other possible option- if storage temperature is high (bad tasting).

So does having "best possible" lessen the strength of "best" by saying in all possible words in this stimulus very low, stable freezer temperatures is the best possible one?

Thank you!

[nicholaspavic]

Hi lunsandy,

Yes. You are picking up on the right idea. "allow for" merely does not prevent, in other words. It weakens the statement whereas "best" is of course extremely strong. Thanks for the great question and I hope this helps!

[Juanq42]

Hello,

I have this habit of sometimes forcing conditionality on every problem.. but i have been treating this as practice to better understand logic found in stimuli...

Based off what was provided I came up with the following (I'd appreciate someone review my work!)

In the instance of HIGH storage temperatures being incentivized by rising energy costs:
(freezer) change temp (ice cream) consistency changed more needed stability WORSE flavor.

likewise, as in answer E) LOW storage temperatures:
(freezer would still) change temp (ice cream still changed) consistency changed LESS NEEDED* stability BETTER in flavor.

Does this chain apply / work in this question?

[James Finch]

Hi Juan,

You can conditionalize the bottom paragraph of the stimulus, and the top part if you really want to, but it's particularly helpful in this case. I wouldn't bother diagramming even the conditional statement given, although I could see how it may be helpful. The problem is that everything else given is cause and effect, and not if/then conditional certainty.

A better way of looking at this stimulus is to identify the problem that needs to be solved (maintaining ice cream flavor and consistency, instead of sacrificing one for the other) and see if the information given allows a way to solve it. Here is where conditionality becomes more useful, as consistent ice cream requires either very consistent, low temperatures or stabilizers that destroy flavor. Since we want consistent and flavorful ice cream, we can't have the stabilizers added, so we need consistent low temperatures. If you absolutely must diagram it, it would look like:

Consistency Consistent Temp. or Stabilizers

Flavor Stabilizers Low Temp

So Consistency + Flavor Consistent + Low Temp

This is exactly what (E) says, although this might be difficult to Prephrase because their are other more obvious Prephrases that one could make based on the incentive to have higher storage temperatures (such as ice cream manufacturers worried about energy costs won't make the most flavorful ice cream.)

Hope this helps!

[bella243]

E doesn't look like the best answer to me because of "very low" phrase. The stimulus doesn't mention that ice cream needs "very" low temperature in order to maintain consistency. Surely, it is a common sense fact that temperature must be low for ice cream, but we don't know for a fact that it needs to be "very low." Or am I missing a widely accepted fact - that ice cream VERY low T, not just low?

[Adam Tyson]

You may be overlooking the evidence in the stimulus about very low temperatures, bella243.

Stabilizers are less needed if storage temperatures are very low.

And we know that stabilizers adversely affect flavor. So very low temperatures means less need, if any, for stabilizers, and thus better flavor. Adding any stabilizers will make the flavor worse. That's how we can infer that very low temperatures allow for the best possible flavor.

And we also know that even the slightest variations in temperature adversely affect consistency, so that stable temperatures would have to be the best thing for consistency.

Don't worry about, or even attempt to use, common sense and whatever you think you may know about ice cream in the real world. Use what the text gave you!

One last note: did you mean that you thought E was less than perfect, or that another answer was actually better? If the latter, you may want to analyze that other answer choice again, because none of the other answers have any support in the stimulus. If the former, then remember that it is not our goal to find perfect answers, or even good ones. Our goal is only to select the best answer of the five choices presented. You don't have to love answer E, but you do have to recognize that it is far superior to all the others and therefore must be the correct answer.