Dried parsley should never be used in cooking, for it is far less tasty and healthful than fresh parsley is.Which one...

Naz on February 12, 2015

Our conclusion is: Dried parsley should never be used in cooking.

Why? We know that dried parsley is neither the tastiest nor the healthiest ingredient.

Answer choice (A) states: "Fresh ingredients should be used in cooking whenever possible."

Well, our conclusion states that dried parsley should NEVER be used. But, what if we do not have fresh parsley? What should we do then? Can we use dried ingredients when fresh ingredients are not available? We do not have enough information. Therefore, Answer choice (A) does not necessarily help justify the argument.

Answer choice (B) states: "Only the tastiest ingredients should ever be used in cooking."

So, we rewrite this: if it should be used, then it is the tastiest ingredient.

(B) SBU ==> TI
not TI ==> not SBU

Thus, if it is not the tastiest ingredient, e.g. dried parsley, then it should not be used, i.e. it should never be used.

Therefore, answer choice (B) helps justify the conclusion.

Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Nikko on June 30, 2015

This was very helpful. Thank you.

fady-yatooma on August 6, 2020

But the other part of the equation is that dried parsley is also less healthful than fresh, so based on the principle in B if Parsley is more tasty and less healthful it should also be used over other ingredients that are less tasty and more healthful, I am not sure how the stimulus makes it clear that taste overrides healthfulness

Victoria on August 11, 2020

Hi @fady-yatooma,

Happy to help!

The stimulus tells us that dried parsley is less tasty and less healthful than fresh parsley and uses this information to conclude that it should never be used in cooking.

The stimulus does not tell us that either of these characteristics is more important than the other. Neither does the stimulus compare parsley to other ingredients - we are simply focused on dried vs. fresh parsley.

Answer choice (B) helps justify the conclusion. If we are deciding between using fresh and dried parsley in a recipe and only the tastiest ingredients should be used in cooking, then we should only ever use fresh parsley because it is tastier than dried parsley.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.