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#34886
Complete Question Explanation

Weaken. The correct answer choice is (A)

This author discusses laundry detergents, which all contain surfactants, substances that can
harm aquatic animals, as well as a majority of ingredients with unknown environmental effects.
This includes those detergents that are marketed as "ecologically friendly." As such, the author
concludes, there is no basis to believe that the detergents branded ecologically friendly do any less
damage than any of the others.

The stimulus is followed by a Weaken question, so the correct answer choice will undermine the
author's conclusion, likely by providing some reason to believe that ecologically friendly laundry
detergents actually are less damaging to the environment than other detergents.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice, as it provides a basis to refute the author's
conclusion. If the "ecologically friendly" detergents contain less surfactants on average, that
provides reason to believe that such products are less damaging to the environment than other types
of detergents.

Answer choice (B): The author's conclusion is based in part on the fact that all laundry detergents
contain surfactants. Thus, even if there is no reason to suppose significant damage is being caused
by most of the ingredients of non-ecologically friendly detergents, that does not weaken the author's
conclusion—that there is no basis for the claim that ecologically friendly detergents are any less
damaging than the others.

Answer choice (C): The author's conclusion is that there is no reason to think that so-called
ecologically friendly soaps are any better than other detergents, based in part on the fact that all such
detergents have surfactants. Even if such surfactants' levels of harm vary from detergent to detergent,
without any additional information, there remains no reason to suppose that the ecologically friendly
soaps are any less harmful. Since this choice does not undermine the author's argument it cannot be
the correct answer to this Weaken question.

Answer choice (D): The author of the stimulus points out that the majority of non-surfactant
ingredients in the detergents are unknown. If the other ingredients are even more harmful, that
would strengthen the author's argument, that there is no reason to think that detergents which market
themselves as ecologically friendly cause any less damage to the environment.

Answer choice (E): If larger amounts of the so-called environmentally friendly detergent are
needed, that increases the likelihood that such detergents damage the environment, what with
their surfactants and other unknown ingredients. Since this choice would strengthen the author's
conclusion, it should be ruled out of contention for this Weaken question.
 Garrett K
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#16715
Hello PowerScore,

I feel dumb with asking this question but why is answer choice A any different from C? I understand that A says that in ecologically friendly detergents there are much lower amounts of surfactants, but in answer choice C they say that different kinds of laundry (aka maybe eco-friendly) detergents contain various kinds of surfactants which would potentially differ in the amount of harm they would cause towards the aquatic life...

Thanks for the help!

Garrett
 Robert Carroll
PowerScore Staff
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#16724
Garrett,

Answer choice (C) doesn't tell us which types have lower amounts, so it doesn't by itself tell us that the eco-friendly detergents are better. Even if different detergents contain different amounts, I would need a reason to think the eco-friendly ones have less of it for this answer to weaken the argument. The answer to a Weaken must contain the new information within itself that would weaken the argument; if I still have to add new information to it, where do I get that new information if it wasn't in the answer choice (and also not in the stimulus)?

Answer choice (A) contains enough for us to tell in which direction this trend goes - not only is there a difference, but the difference is definitely tipping in favor of eco-friendly detergents, which makes us certain it weakens. (C) is merely CONSISTENT with further (unstated!) facts that would weaken but aren't present.

Robert Carroll

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