- Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:00 am
#22806
Complete Question Explanation
Weaken. The correct answer choice is (C)
This author discusses a system used to rank the level of recyclability of various plastics, asserting that consumers should avoid buying high numbered (and thus less readily recyclable) plastics in order to reduce the amount of waste that goes unrecycled. The correct response to this weaken question will likely show some reason to doubt the effectiveness of this advice.
Answer choice (A): The main consideration used as a basis for the author’s advice is the effort to reduce the amount of materials that go unrecycled. Thus the cost is completely irrelevant to the inquiry, and this answer choice must be incorrect.
Answer choice (B): The term “many” is extremely vague (does this mean one million? Does it mean three?), and regardless, the number of consumers currently aware of the referenced system does strengthen or weaken the argument that one should avoid the higher numbers to reduce unrecycyled materials.
Answer choice (C) is the correct answer choice. According to answer choice (C), virtually every time a plastic container is recycled, its number goes up. If you adopt the author's recommendation to purchase products packaged in containers with lower numbers, you may see some reduction in the amount of unrecycled waste, but only in the short term! Over the long run, these containers will become progressively more difficult to recycle, as their numbers will go up. Eventually, their numbers will be high enough that they will never be recycled. Thus, the preference for plastics with low numbers would only have a temporary effect. Since the conclusion is concerned with making a "long-term reduction in the amount of waste that goes unrecycled," answer choice (C) deals a decisive blow.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice is wrong for much the same reason that answer choice (B) is incorrect. The concern is not the final price, but the amount of material that go unrecycled, so this answer choice is irrelevant and incorrect.
Answer choice (E): The point at which the higher numbers are tossed into landfills does not affect the author’s conclusion, so this answer choice is incorrect.
Weaken. The correct answer choice is (C)
This author discusses a system used to rank the level of recyclability of various plastics, asserting that consumers should avoid buying high numbered (and thus less readily recyclable) plastics in order to reduce the amount of waste that goes unrecycled. The correct response to this weaken question will likely show some reason to doubt the effectiveness of this advice.
Answer choice (A): The main consideration used as a basis for the author’s advice is the effort to reduce the amount of materials that go unrecycled. Thus the cost is completely irrelevant to the inquiry, and this answer choice must be incorrect.
Answer choice (B): The term “many” is extremely vague (does this mean one million? Does it mean three?), and regardless, the number of consumers currently aware of the referenced system does strengthen or weaken the argument that one should avoid the higher numbers to reduce unrecycyled materials.
Answer choice (C) is the correct answer choice. According to answer choice (C), virtually every time a plastic container is recycled, its number goes up. If you adopt the author's recommendation to purchase products packaged in containers with lower numbers, you may see some reduction in the amount of unrecycled waste, but only in the short term! Over the long run, these containers will become progressively more difficult to recycle, as their numbers will go up. Eventually, their numbers will be high enough that they will never be recycled. Thus, the preference for plastics with low numbers would only have a temporary effect. Since the conclusion is concerned with making a "long-term reduction in the amount of waste that goes unrecycled," answer choice (C) deals a decisive blow.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice is wrong for much the same reason that answer choice (B) is incorrect. The concern is not the final price, but the amount of material that go unrecycled, so this answer choice is irrelevant and incorrect.
Answer choice (E): The point at which the higher numbers are tossed into landfills does not affect the author’s conclusion, so this answer choice is incorrect.