Would it be right for the government to abandon efforts to determine at what levels to allow toxic substances in our ...
MelodyWilsonSeptember 11, 2020
I thought if a M.P. question asked a question, the answer was the answer?
One of the questions prior to this one had a similar question structure and the key takeaway indicated that the answer to the question was the main point/conclusion. Why is that not the case for this question?
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I have the same question. And also, why is it acceptable here to use what is implied? I thought we had to abandon "reading between the lines" and use only what is explicitly stated?
VictoriaOctober 9, 2020
Hi @MelodyWilson and @emilymorganized,
Happy to help!
While the answer to a question in a main point question stimulus is usually the correct answer, this is not the case here because the answer to the question sets out a condition.
The stimulus tells us that it would be right for the government to abandon efforts to determine at what levels to allow toxic substances in our food supply only if it can reasonably be argued that the only acceptable level of toxic substances in food is zero.
Government abandon efforts --> Acceptable level is zero
Acceptable level is NOT zero --> Government should not abandon efforts
The stimulus then goes on to tell us that virtually all foods cannot be said to have a level of zero toxic substances.
The sufficient condition in our contrapositive is met. Therefore, we can conclude the necessary condition i.e. the government should not abandon their efforts to determine acceptable levels for toxic substances in our food supply.
In this way, the conclusion is implied because it is not directly stated by the stimulus, but it can still be properly drawn by diagramming out the conditional logic used and taking the contrapositive.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
emilymorganizedOctober 10, 2020
Thank you so much! Understanding the sufficient & necessary lessons and then going BACK to the main point questions helps a lot!
juliekattNovember 2, 2021
Wow-Victoria, this was the best explanation out of all the ones I've read! I sometimes forget that these problems are helpful to diagram; not just the logic games.
