#16 - When glass products are made from recycled glass, the

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

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

Since this is an ordinary fact-set stimulus and not an argument, the Must Be True question will probably require us to put the facts together in some meaningful way and come up with a valid conclusion. According to the information in the stimulus, recycling plastic lowers the quality of plastic from which it is derived. Recycling glass has no such disadvantage. Since no applications have been found for plastics whose grade is lower than the lowest commercial grade, recycling the lowest commercial grade would clearly be pointless. Answer choice (A) is the only one that matches this inference.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. See discussion above.

Answer choice (B): Since recycling glass does not lower its quality and the resulting products can be equal in quality to glass products made from quartz sand, this answer choice is not supported by the information in the stimulus.

Answer choice (C): The relative cost of recycled glass products and glass products made from quartz is not discussed. While this answer choice is likely to be true (and you may know it to be true from real life), the information in the stimulus does not definitively prove it, and therefore this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (D): On the contrary: since recycled plastic is of lower quality than the plastic from which it is derived, distinguishing it from "virgin" plastic should not be too difficult. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): The author never compares the difference in quality between grades of glass and grades of plastic. The only comparison is between virgin glass and recycled glass, and virgin plastic and recycled plastic. Whenever the stimulus introduces comparisons, make sure you pay close attention to what precisely is being compared and avoid making unwarranted assumptions about elements that are not comparatively linked.

[ellenb]

Dear Powerscore,

For this question, I thought the answer is E, however, I know that the answer is A.

Please let me know why A is right, I thought I cannot equal
lower than the lowest = lowest?

It does not make sense. Please explain, since in the stimulus it says that they cannot make products from the lower than the currently lowest, however, it does not say that cannot make products from the lowest. I am a bit confused.

Since, If I Ex: can say lowest is (7) and (lower than lowest will be (8)

1 being the highest and 10 the lowest. So in the stimulus they said nothing can be made from 8 quality plastic, vs in the answer choice they mean 7 quality plastic, I am a bit confused.

Thanks

Ellen

[David Boyle]

Dear Powerscore,

For this question, I thought the answer is E, however, I know that the answer is A.

Please let me know why A is right, I thought I cannot equal
lower than the lowest = lowest?

It does not make sense. Please explain, since in the stimulus it says that they cannot make products from the lower than the currently lowest, however, it does not say that cannot make products from the lowest. I am a bit confused.

Since, If I Ex: can say lowest is (7) and (lower than lowest will be (8)

1 being the highest and 10 the lowest. So in the stimulus they said nothing can be made from 8 quality plastic, vs in the answer choice they mean 7 quality plastic, I am a bit confused.

Thanks

Ellen

Hello Ellen,

E, we don't know is true, since recycled glass products only *can* be equal in quality to glass made from quartz sand, but don't have to be. So recycled glass can be of really bad quality too. Not to mention unrecycled glass!!
As for A: it's right because no applications for lower than the currently lowest. And recycled plastics create a lower grade. So if you recycle the lowest available, you'll make something with no applications. (If you recycle grade 7, you get grade 8 or lower--which may be too low to make anything!)

Hope that helps,
David

[rameday]

So I understand why after process of elimination A is correct. But I don't understand what about A on its own is correct.

I got this one wrong, my contenders were A and E. I thought A was wrong because the last sentence of the stimulus says no applications exist for grades of plastic lower than the current lowest commercial grade.

So therefore A seemed wrong to me because it it said that there aren't applications for plastics that sit at the currently lowest commercial grade. That answer would have been correct to me if it had said that there aren't applications for plastics that sit lower than the currently lowest commercial grade

A

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi rameday,

A prephrase for this question would be something along the lines of:
"It is pointless to recycle plastic of the lowest commercial grade, because after you recycle it it would be a even lower grade, and there would be no application for it."

Answer choice A says almost exactly that. A is saying that, if you recycle the lowest commercial grade, it would be one grade even below that, since we know that recycled plastic is always a lower grade than the plastic that it was derived from. Therefore, there would be no use for it.

[rameday]

Ahh yes that makes sense. I need to read more carefully. A says recycled from the lowest commercial grade. The key word is recycled.

[rowdy]

Based on the discussion already present in this thread, I understand why E is wrong and that A is right. That being said I am still having trouble reconciling the stimulus saying no "applications" have been found for these lower grade recyled plastics with the answer choice saying, "products cannot presently be made."

I read the stimulus as saying that there is no available application for existing recycled products in the last sentence. I pre phrased a conclusion comparing the equal quality of the recycled glass product with the poor quality of the recycled plastic product. I crossed off A as a "shell game" choice. I read the first part of A as saying products cannot be presently produced, as in the capacity to create a recycled product does not exist. I knew that recycled plastics COULD be made based on the stimulus. Thus, A (I thought) was trying to trip me up by replacing a lack of application with the lack of ability to make recycled low grade plastics. My pre phrase led me to E and I didn't pay enough attention to its disruption of "grades."

I feel like I am missing the point because other people seemed to be concerned with "lower than the currently lowest commercial grade" part. Am I reading too much into the cannot language, or am I missing the point?

Please help,

Rowdy

[Jonathan Evans]

Hey Rowdy,

Good question. I'm glad you brought up the Shell Game. The form of the shell game that you are describing involves substituting a term in the stimulus with a seemingly analogous but actually different term in the answer choices. As you have observed, these kinds of situations are quite common. However, it is also not uncommon for the LSAT to shift terminology in a manner in which the two terms can be properly related to one another. I can think of another example off the top of my head involving the concepts of whether something is "physically addicting" with simply "addicting." This shift causes you to overlook or dismiss the credited response.

How can you avoid this situation? For one, you could consider that "making a product" would necessarily be a subset of "any/all applications." Barring this observation, let's consider a couple other ways you could avoid falling into these traps.

For one, in your work in the stimulus you might note that while recycled glass products can be equal in quality to the original glass, they need not be. This lack of necessity often indicates that you will be less likely to draw a valid inference from this information in the stimulus. In contrast, the fact that you know (1) that there is no application for plastics below the current lowest commercial grade and (2) plastic always decreases in grade when recycled gives you a strong connection that would lead you to a good prephrase for this problem.

Second, you need to verify that you can in fact prove the answer you have selected. When you choose E as a contender, do not neglect going back to the stimulus to ensure that there is indeed support to back it up.

I hope this helps.

[rowdy]

Thank you for your response!

When you say that making the product would necessarily be a subset of any and all applications, would that mean:

Product can be made applications ; NO applications product CANNOT be made ?

If so, I understand that inference.

Also I appreciate the insight about recognizing things in the stimulus as being given as certainty or not, and their relevance to the pre phrase.

BIG THANKS!

[Jonathan Evans]

My pleasure! Yes, your conditional statements appear correct to me. Well done.