Self-study
A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that Support plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or by volume. ███ ██████ ████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes paper products currently hurt the country’s environment more than plastic products. Why? Because paper trash and plastic trash do roughly the same damage, but there’s more paper trash out there, by weight and by volume.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s nothing else about plastic or paper that makes plastic products more harmful to the environment. This means assuming that plastic does no more harm than paper over a given product’s entire life cycle, including before it becomes garbage.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
A given weight ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████
This doesn’t affect the argument. It doesn’t say paper does more or less harm—or exists in greater or lesser amounts—at earlier stages of its life cycle than plastic does.
b
According to popular ████████ ██████ ██ █ ████ █████████ █████████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████████
This doesn’t affect the argument. The study found more paper than plastic by weight and by volume, so the conclusion is supported equally whether this is true or false.
c
The sum of ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████████
This doesn’t affect the argument. The author compares paper and plastic trash to each other, not to other types of trash.
d
The production of ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
This is another reason paper usage does more damage to the environment than plastic usage. It rules out the possibility that plastic products do more harm to the environment during manufacturing than paper products do.
e
The proportion of ███████ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████
This is accounted for in the study described, so it doesn’t affect the argument. The study examined “representative areas” across the country—differences between those areas do not imply the study was flawed.