Correction: At 0:22 J.Y. mistakenly says that (E) is the right answer choice. (C) is the actual right answer choice.
Application: Although Megan’s frequent reading stimulates her intellectually, it reduces the amount of time she spends interacting with other people. Therefore, it is not healthy for her to read as much as she does.
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that it’s not healthy for Megan to read as much as she does. This is based on the principle that an activity that promotes a child’s intellectual development is healthy only if it doesn’t detract from social development. And, we know that Megan’s reading stimulates her intellectually, but reduces the time she spends interacting with other people.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that if an activity reduces the amount of time Megan interacts with others, it must detract from her social development. This is the assumption that makes the author believe that Megan’s frequent reading interacts with the principle to prove that her reading isn’t healthy.
A
It misinterprets the principle as a universal claim intended to hold in all cases without exception, rather than as a mere generalization.
The principle is not a mere generalization. It’s a conditional rule that doesn’t have exceptions. If an activity that promotes a child’s intellectual development detracts from social development, then it’s not healthy for children to engage in it.
B
It overlooks the possibility that the benefits of a given activity may sometimes be important enough to outweigh the adverse health effects.
The conclusion is that Megan’s reading isn’t healthy. Whether there are benefits to reading that outweigh health effects has no impact on whether her reading isn’t healthy.
C
It misinterprets the principle to be, at least in part, a claim about what is unhealthy, rather than solely a claim about what is healthy.
The principle is about what’s unhealthy. It tells us that if the activity that promotes intellectual development detracts from social development, then it’s not healthy for children to engage in it. So it’s not “solely” a claim about what is healthy.
D
It takes for granted that any decrease in the amount of time a child spends interacting with others detracts from that child’s social development.
The author assumes that Megan’s reading detracts from her social development because it reduces the time she spends interacting with others. This overlooks the possibility that reducing time interacting with others might not detract from her social development.
E
It takes a necessary condition for an activity’s being healthy as a sufficient condition for its being so.
A necessary condition for an activity’s being healthy is that it doesn’t detract from social development. The author does not argue that an activity is healthy because it doesn’t detract from social development.
Summary
McElligott flash pasteurizes its apple juice in response to bacterial infections traced to its juice. Flash pasteurization involves quickly heating it and immediately chilling it. Intensive pasteurization involves heating juice for an hour, and this method kills bacteria more than any other method. Intensive pasteurization destroys the original flavor. McElligott’s orange juices have not been linked to any infections and remain unpasteurized.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
McEligott’s apple juice is more likely to have bacteria than juice that undergoes intensive pasteurization.
A
McElligott’s citrus juices contain fewer infectious bacteria than do citrus juices produced by other companies.
This is unsupported because as far as we know, McElligott’s citrus juices may have a lot or a little bacteria. We don’t know how this compares to other juice companies.
B
McElligott’s apple juice is less likely to contain infectious bacteria than are McElligott’s citrus juices.
This is unsupported because even though the apple juice is flash pasteurized, we don’t know how much bacteria the citrus juice has to begin with. The citrus juices may already have no bacteria even without pasteurization.
C
McElligott’s citrus juices retain more of the juices’ original flavor than do any pasteurized citrus juices.
This is unsupported because the author never tells us how flash pasteurization affects flavor, meaning flash pasteurized citrus juices may have as much of the original flavor as McElligott’s.
D
The most effective method for eliminating bacteria from juice is also the method most likely to destroy flavor.
This is unsupported because while intensive pasteurization is the most effective method for eliminating bacteria from juice, we don’t compare its likelihood of destroying flavor to that of any other method.
E
Apple juice that undergoes intensive pasteurization is less likely than McElligott’s apple juice is to contain bacteria.
This is strongly supported because intensive pasteurization, which McElligott’s apple juice does not undergo, eliminates more bacteria than any other method of pasteurization.