PrepTest 103, Section 1, Question 14
The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization(74 more words not shown)
The president's argument depends on(6 more words not shown)
- AEnvironmental activists believe(8 more words not shown)
- BHandling of the(17 more words not shown)
- CFear of pollution(13 more words not shown)
- DNo others besides(14 more words not shown)
- ETreatment by superheated(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Clean after treatment doesn't mean safe at every step before that.
I understand why residents would worry about bringing contaminated medical waste into their neighborhood. But their fear alone doesn't establish that the plant would pollute, either. We need to look at the president's defense.
He says the processed waste would be sterile, even cleaner than food from the cleanest kitchen. I'd want that impressive claim verified. More fundamentally, even if it's completely accurate, what happens while the untreated waste is being brought in and handled? If contaminated waste escapes before sterilization, a spotless final product won't undo that pollution.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what his argument requires. We have two concerns in mind: whether the promised treatment works, and whether the waste can pose a danger before the treatment is complete. A required assumption could protect the argument against one of those concerns.
Working the answers
- A
The activists don't have to believe treated waste is harmless for it actually to be harmless. They might remain unconvinced even if the process works. The president's claim concerns the plant's ability to cause pollution, not whether opponents already agree with him.
- BCorrect
This addresses the danger before treatment. The president reasons from the cleanliness of the processed waste to the safety of the plant's operation. If handling untreated waste could pollute the area, that inference would fail even if the autoclave worked perfectly. His argument therefore needs the assumption that this earlier handling poses no pollution threat.
- C
Pollution needn't be the only objection to the facility. Residents could also dislike its appearance or the traffic it brings. The president is defending the plant against the pollution concern; his argument doesn't require every other possible objection to disappear.
- D
It doesn't matter whether activists are the only people worried. The opening already mentions residents' fears as well, without requiring us to decide how those groups overlap. The president's safety argument could be made regardless of how many kinds of people oppose the plant. Their identities don't establish whether pollution can occur.
- E
The treatment doesn't have to be the surest method available. It needs to achieve the result the president claims for this process. Another method could be even more reliable without showing that this one fails. And even the best sterilization method wouldn't, by itself, address contaminated waste escaping before treatment.
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