Q16 - In an effort to boost milk production

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Inference (Most Strongly Supported)

Stimulus Breakdown:
No argument here, so we just need to know the facts. Some cows get treated with a genetically engineered hormone called BST. Consumer groups oppose this. BST milk is identical in nutritional value to the milk of untreated cows. BST treated cows are more likely to get infections and more likely to get antibiotics, which may show up in their milk. High levels of antibiotics may be harmful to humans. But, all milk is regularly screened for antibiotics.

Answer Anticipation:
Questions like this are challenging if you have your own opinion on the real-world event they describe. If that's you, you need to put those opinions aside and just evaluate the facts given in the stimulus. These facts don't chain together the way conditional statements or causal statements can, so there isn't much prephrasing we can do here. Instead, we should go into the answer choices ready to work wrong-to-right. Most strongly supported answers are typically eliminated because they lack support or they have too strong a degree.

Correct answer:
D

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Too strong. While some legitimate reasons (like nutritional value), are ruled out by the stimulus, there may be other reasons that aren't addressed.

(B) Too strong, again! There may be reasons it is less safe that weren't covered by the stimulus.

(C) Unsupported! The first line tells us that farmers are doing this in an effort to boost milk production. Now, we don't know whether it actually does boost production, but if it achieves that goal, this would be a potential advantage.

(D) This sounds good, but "only if" is really strong. That indicates that antibiotic screening is necessary for safety. Does our stimulus go that far? Well, we know BST can result in higher rates of antibiotic use. We also know that antibiotics can show up in the milk, and that high levels of antibiotics may be harmful to humans. So, if we didn't screen BST milk for antibiotics, we'd be at risk of getting high levels of antibiotics. Therefore the only way that milk can be presumed safe is if it is successfully screened. Bingo.

(E) Too strong, again! Antibiotics are the only threat that is discussed in this stimulus, but there could exist other threats that aren't covered here.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Many Most Strongly Supported question don't bend well to the prephrasing technique. If you have a bunch of causal or conditional statements, you can chain them up. But if you don't, plan on working wrong-to-right, keeping a particular eye out for answers that have too extreme a degree. One flavor of extreme answer to look out for is the answer that treats something established by the stimulus as though it's the only thing that could be similar or relevant (E).

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