Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made

Question

Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made from artificial fibers such as polyester often shrink when washed at high temperatures. The reason for this shrinkage is that natural fibers are tightly curled in their original state. Since the manufacturer of cloth requires straight fibers, natural fibers are artificially straightened prior to being made into cloth. High temperatures cause all fibers in cloth to return to their original states.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Washing clothes made from natural fibers at low temperatures causes the fibers to straighten slightly.

(B) High temperatures have no effect on the straightness of fibers in clothes made from a blend of natural and artificial fibers.

(C) Clothes made from natural fibers stretch more easily than do clothes made from artificial fibers.

(D) If natural fibers that have been straightened and used for cloth are curled up again by high temperatures, they cannot be straightened again.

(E) Artificial fibers are straight in their original state.

Blair15 · Answer

IMO E is the answer. The line "Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made from artificial fibers such as polyester often shrink when washed at high temperatures" indicates that clothes made from artificial fibres don't shrink, which implies they don't curl up.

ABHRAJIT · Answer

Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made from artificial fibers such as polyester often shrink when washed at high temperatures. ----> So artificial fiber clothes don't shrink when washed at high temperatures.

High temperatures cause all fibers in cloth to return to their original states.----> So if artificial fibers don't shrink, then their original state = final state after high temp wash = straightened.

unraveled · Answer

Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made from artificial fibers such as polyester often shrink when washed at high temperatures. The reason for this shrinkage is that natural fibers are tightly curled in their original state. Since the manufacturer of cloth requires straight fibers, natural fibers are artificially straightened prior to being made into cloth. High temperatures cause all fibers in cloth to return to their original states.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Washing clothes made from natural fibers at low temperatures causes the fibers to straighten slightly. - WRONG. Opposite is not necessarily true.

(B) High temperatures have no effect on the straightness of fibers in  clothes made from a blend of natural and artificial fibers . - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(C) Clothes made from natural fibers  stretch more easily  than do clothes made from artificial fibers. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(D) If natural fibers that have been straightened and used for cloth are curled up again by high temperatures, they  cannot be straightened again . - WRONG. The 2nd best option for me. Only if outside knowledge is brought into this then someone might fall into the trap. Straightening again the fibers is out of scope which would require further assumption.

(E) Artificial fibers are straight in their original state. - CORRECT. Although this is correct but i have a slight problem with the word "original". Original state of natural fiber is mentioned so anything about artificial fiber about its natural state has to be cautiously inferred. How it can be said so? The word "unlike" helps here. The first statement is a fact or an observation and the reason for such thing happening is given in next statement. "Unlike" suggests opposite being true. Also, POE helps better.

Answer E.

Tea12 · Answer

Since it is given in argument that  natural fibers are artificially straightened prior to being made into cloth . This implies artificial fibers are straight in their original state. Therefore E is correct

Tuuyen2 · Answer

I dont understand why from "natural fibers are artificially straightened", we can infer that "artificial fibers are straight in its original state . Can someone explain to me plz?. I think the way the question and answer choices are written is just not logically strong enough

tinbq · Answer

Hi experts,

Please help to explain why each option is right or wrong. Thanks

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Hey there. Here was my thinking as I went through the problem

First I read the question:

This question tells me I am drawing an  inference  from the passage. (That is, I won't be dealing with an argument).

So I read the passage carefully.

Okay, so, I realized the passage was drawing a distinction between clothes made with natural fiber and clothes made with artificial fibers.

High level: 
In heat, natural fibers SHRINK. Artificial Fibers DON'T.

Then I get some explanation as to WHY.

Basically: natural fibers are STRAIGHTENED to make clothes, and HEAT reverts them (in fact, reverts ALL FIBERS) to their ORIGINAL STATE.

Before I thought harder about this, I already had a sense of what the answer would go for. It was probably going to be something about the original state of artificial fibers.

So I noticed a few things. We're told natural fibers are STRAIGHTENED to make cloth (but we aren't told whether artificial fibers are straightened or not).

But heat causes ALL FIBERS (natural AND artificial) to revert to their original state. This is, evidently, why natural fibers SHRINK but artificial fibers DON'T. So, the original state of natural fibers must be 'shrunk,' and the natural state of artificial fibers is NOT shrunk. And yet, the heat should revert even artificial fibers to their 'natural state.' So, if they are IN their natural state but NOT shrunk, their natural state must be STRAIGHT.

So I didn't even read the other answers, I just found that answer in E and chose it.

Now as to why the wrong answers are wrong:

I can infer nothing about washing at low temperatures. The passage only gives me information about high temperatures.

This contradicts what's in the passage, as high temperatures cause natural fibers (whether they are in a blend or not) to return their natural state (which is un-straightened).

No idea about stretchiness. Could not infer that from anything given.

There's nothing in the passage that let's me infer that the re-curled natural fibers could not be re-straightened.

This is the right answer!

Malzoo · Answer

why is E correct? Artificial fibres probably don't shrink because of some type of chemical added to them or some other reason. why does it have to be because they don't curl up?

Haffun · Answer

Artificial fibres, like all fibres, revert to their original state when washed at high temperatures + they don't curl up when washed at high temps = their original state must be straight.

Inference must be drawn from solely the passage. The passage tells nothing about any chemical.

KushagraKirtiman · Answer

Wrong, We can't infer anything about the artificial fibers from the passage. Straightness of the fibres can be due to many reasons

Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made

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Clothes made from natural fibers such as cotton, unlike clothes made

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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