PrepTest 150, Section 2, Question 9
Yu: The menu at Jason’s Restaurant states that(52 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AJason does not(8 more words not shown)
- BJason buys ingredients(18 more words not shown)
- CAt Kelly’s Grocery,(18 more words not shown)
- DNone of the(25 more words not shown)
- EMost people who(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Shopping at the store doesn't mean buying everything the store sells.
Kelly's could stock produce from several farms. Some items could be grown with chemical pesticides and others without them. Jason might choose only the latter. Yu has seen a delivery to the store, not the contents of Jason's shopping basket.
Another first thought might be that MegaFarm itself grows some produce without those pesticides. But that would contradict the premise: it uses them on all its crops. So leave that possibility aside. The promising gap is still the store's mixed selection and what Jason actually buys from it.
What we’re looking for
To weaken Yu's claim, I'd want evidence that Jason can shop there while avoiding the pesticide-grown produce. We don't have to prove the menu true beyond doubt; we need to challenge the inference that this delivery makes the menu's statement impossible.
Working the answers
- A
Jason's knowledge doesn't determine what is in the food. He could unknowingly buy produce grown with chemical pesticides, in which case the menu would still be false. A might affect whether he is deliberately misleading customers, but Yu's claim concerns the truth of the menu, not whether Jason knows it is false.
- B
Pesticide-free purchases from other suppliers don't establish that his purchases at Kelly's are also pesticide-free. The menu says none of the food contains products grown with chemical pesticides. Jason could buy clean ingredients elsewhere and still buy some MegaFarm produce here, leaving Yu's objection intact.
- CCorrect
The labels give Jason a way to identify produce grown without chemical pesticides. That makes the alternative we considered more concrete: he could buy those labeled items and avoid the MegaFarm produce. C doesn't say he actually follows that practice every time. But it undercuts Yu's claim that simply buying produce at Kelly's must mean using the pesticide-grown products.
- D
A government-approved chemical pesticide is still a chemical pesticide. The menu doesn't claim merely that the food meets a government safety standard; it claims these products weren't grown using chemical pesticides. Approval doesn't resolve that particular claim.
- E
We need to know about Jason's purchases, not merely what most customers would choose. Jason might not belong to the majority described. Even a customer who would never knowingly buy those products might buy them without realizing it. E doesn't provide C's concrete way to distinguish the items on the shelf.
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