PrepTest 101, Section 3, Question 7
In response to requests made by the dairy(72 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(13 more words not shown)
- AThe government is(11 more words not shown)
- BThe proportion of(23 more words not shown)
- CAt the present(20 more words not shown)
- DThe milk from(12 more words not shown)
- EOwners of big(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
More milk sounds like a benefit for a dairy farm. But it comes with a bill: the cows develop problems that require constant veterinary attention. So I don't want to look at the extra production without also looking at what it costs to manage those problems.
The crucial comparison is cost per cow. Imagine, just to make the economics concrete, that one veterinarian could provide the necessary care for a thousand cows on a large farm, while a small farm had only fifty cows to share a similar bill. The large farm would spread the bill across twenty times as many cows. That isn't a factual claim about how many cows one veterinarian can treat; it's a picture of why a lower cost per cow could matter.
The passage gives us that cost advantage, even though it doesn't tell us exactly how farms achieve it. Big farms can obtain the production benefit while paying less per cow for the extra care. So my prediction is that government approval would give big farms a greater advantage than small ones.
What we’re looking for
We might also wonder about the cows' welfare or the safety of the milk for people. Those are questions, not answers supplied here. This question asks what the stated facts support. The facts describe effects on cows and the cost of controlling those effects; they don't tell us whether the milk harms its drinkers.
Working the answers
- A
We know the government is considering approval. We don't know how it will decide. It could give great weight to additional milk production or to the problems the hormone causes. A prediction about the government's final decision needs information about its standards and priorities that we haven't been given.
- B
A higher cost of care on small farms doesn't tell us what proportion of cows currently have these problems on either size of farm. Perhaps both kinds of farms provide the needed treatment despite different costs. We also aren't given their current hormone use. A cost comparison isn't a measurement of current illness.
- C
This requires two unsupported steps. First, it assumes that the difference in care costs translates into a difference in whether farms use BST. But higher costs wouldn't prove that small farms avoid it. Second, it assumes that milk from cows without BST is safer for people. The passage never connects the cows' symptoms to the safety of their milk for drinkers. Even if the first step were established, the second would still be missing.
- D
Effects on the cows aren't automatically effects on people who drink the milk. The passage gives us no evidence that the milk would be unsafe. That may be a question someone would want investigated, but it isn't a conclusion we can draw from these facts.
- ECorrect
Big farms would get the milk-production benefit while facing lower costs per cow for the necessary veterinary care. That gives their owners a reason to expect more gain from approval than the owners of small farms. E follows the production-and-cost comparison; it doesn't require us to invent a claim about human health or predict what the government will decide.
More Must Be True questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Must Be True questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.