Of the various food containers made of recycled Styrofoam, egg cartons are among the easiest to make. ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████████
In most strongly supported questions, we can just treat the stimulus as a list of rules – 10 commandments style – any one of which could hold the key to the correct answer. Here's a broken-out list of the stimulus' claims:
- Many food containers are made from recycled styrofoam. (Like steak trays, for example.)
- Of those, egg cartons are comparatively easy to make.
- Egg shells stop the eggs themselves from touching the container.
- For this reason, egg cartons don't need to be cleaned as thoroughly as steak trays.
Difficult MSS questions often lack an obvious anticipation, and I think this is one such example. A prime candidate for the process of elimination.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
No food containers █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ████████
Lots of small things to nitpick about (A). Here's a short one first: where does "safety" come from? The stimulus tells us we "need" to clean various containers, but it doesn't tell us why. Perhaps the main motivations are regulatory or aesthetic.
Another is (A)'s strong "No" claim when paired with the stimulus' "among the easiest" wording. Perhaps there are other food containers that are easy to make for the same reason as egg cartons. Anything with a skin or rind comes to mind, like a grapefruit or cheese wheel.
And another: (A) treats "thorough cleaning" as an absolute concept as opposed to a relative one. In (A)'s world, things either are or are not thoroughly cleaned, but the stimulus treats it as a spectrum – egg cartons don't need to be as thoroughly cleaned as other containers.
So we don't actually know that egg cartons don't need to be thoroughly cleaned – maybe they do, just not as thoroughly as other containers. We also don't know whether other containers need to be thoroughly cleaned – maybe they don't, they just have to be cleaner than egg cartons.
There are some █████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████████
The entire stimulus takes place inside the domain of recycled Styrofoam. It simply never comments on whether various foods can or can't be packaged in it, because it's too busy focusing on the process of packaging the foods that can be.
The main reason █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████
"Residual food" isn't mentioned in the stimulus, and is too specific a concept to find support without being mentioned explicitly. What about dirt, chemicals, bacteria, or any other kind of contaminant?
And (C) doesn't even say residual food is a reason – it says it's the main reason. That demands a specific comparison between residual food and other contaminants, something that's also absent in the stimulus.
Because they are █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████
Let's think about what (D) is actually saying. If the claim is that most egg cartons are made from recycled Styrofoam, that means less than half are made from paper, or new Styrofoam, or plastic, or whatever.
We have no information about any of those other materials, much less a comparison of how often they're used to make egg cartons.
Not every type ██ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████████
First off, here's what (E) actually says:
Some foods come into contact with their recycled-Styrofoam containers.
The stimulus'
Because Kevin has an enormous brain, his LSAT score is higher than Mikey's.
This sentence doesn't just tell us about Kevin's brain – it also implicitly tells us about Mikey's. Specifically, it tells us that Mikey does not have an enormous brain.
Since brain size is supposedly the reason Mikey and Kevin's scores are different, the sentence makes no sense if Mikey and Kevin both have enormous brains. In other words, if Mikey has an enormous brain as well, something other than brain size must be the real reason Kevin's score is higher.
Same with the stimulus. When the author tells us egg shells prevent food contact, and they say that's the reason egg cartons don't need to be cleaned as much as other containers, the sentence only makes sense if other foods do make contact with their containers.
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