PrepTest 134, Section 2, Question 24
In response to several bacterial infections traced to(60 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(11 more words not shown)
- AMcElligott's citrus juices(12 more words not shown)
- BMcElligott's apple juice(12 more words not shown)
- CMcElligott's citrus juices(13 more words not shown)
- DThe most effective(15 more words not shown)
- EApple juice that(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Flash pasteurization isn't intensive pasteurization. Keep those treatments separate. McElligott quickly heats and rechills its apple juice. My first question is whether that treatment removes the bacteria effectively enough. The next sentence tells us there is a more effective method: heating the juice for an hour. But that intensive method is also likely to destroy the original flavor. That sounds like a possible tradeoff, not a reason to pretend the two methods work equally well.
The citrus juices add another distinction. They remain unpasteurized because they haven't been linked to infections. That doesn't establish that they contain no bacteria. It reports what has been linked to illness, not a complete count of what is in every bottle.
What we’re looking for
There is no policy conclusion for us to attack. We need a claim supported by these facts. Keep the treatment comparison, the flavor statement, and the absence of a reported infection separate as we test the choices.
Working the answers
- A
We have no comparison with citrus juices made by other companies. McElligott's citrus juices not being linked to infections doesn't rank their bacteria levels against anyone else's. Other companies' juices could have fewer bacteria, more, or the same amount.
- B
Pasteurizing the apple juice may remove bacteria, but we don't know how much bacteria either kind of juice starts with. If the citrus juice has very little to begin with, it could still contain less after the apple juice is treated. If it has more, the comparison could go the other way. Different treatment alone doesn't establish this ranking between different juices.
- C
We are told that intensive pasteurization is likely to destroy flavor. We aren't told that every kind of pasteurization does so; flash pasteurization might preserve it well. Nor does leaving juice unpasteurized rule out other ways it could lose flavor. C's comparison with any pasteurized citrus juice goes beyond the evidence.
- D
Likely to destroy flavor isn't the same as most likely to destroy it. The passage ranks intensive pasteurization first for eliminating bacteria, but it gives no complete ranking of methods by flavor damage. Another method could be even worse for flavor while being less effective against bacteria.
- ECorrect
Intensive pasteurization eliminates bacteria more effectively than any other method, including the flash method McElligott uses. Comparing intensively pasteurized apple juice with McElligott's flash-pasteurized apple juice therefore supports the lower likelihood of bacteria in the intensively treated juice. This uses the treatment comparison we are actually given, without inventing a comparison between apple and citrus or ranking every method's effect on flavor.
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