Critical Reasoning

i sometime get a feeling that if we change the text of "prep problems" then the whole meaning gets changed
for instance have a look at the following problems:

question 1( from prep): From 1978 to 1988, beverage containers accounted for a steadily decreasing % of the total weight of household garbage in the United States. The increasingly widespread recycling of aluminum and glass was responsible for most of this decline. However, although aluminum recycling was more widely practiced than glass recycling, it was found that the weight of glass bottles in household garbage declined by a greater % than the weight of the aluminum cans.

Which of the following, if true of the United States in the period 1978 to 1988, most helps to account for the finding?

(a) Glass bottles are significantly heavier than aluminum cans of comparable size.

(b) Recycled aluminum cans were almost all beverage containers, but a significant fraction of the recycled glass bottles had contained products other than beverages.

(c) Manufacturers replaced many glass bottles, but few aluminum cans, with plastic containers.

(d) The total weight of glass bottles purchased by households increased at a slightly faster rate than the total weight of aluminum cans.

(e) In many areas, glass bottles had to be sorted by color of the glass before being recycled, whereas the aluminum cans required no sorting.

IT is easy to accept option C as answer in this question .however i came across a poor rendering of this question,which is as follows:

question 2: From 2000 to 2010, beverage containers accounted for a steadily decreasing percentage of the total weight of domestic garbage in the Brazil. The increasingly widespread practice of recycling aluminum and plastic was responsible for most of this decline. However, although aluminum recycling was more widely practiced in this period than plastic recycling, it was found that the weight of plastic bottles in domestic garbage declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminum cans.

Which of the following, if true of the Brazil in the period 2000 to 2010, most helps to account for the finding?

A. Plastic bottles are significantly heavier than aluminum cans of comparable size.

B. Recycled aluminum cans were almost all beverage containers, but a significant fraction of the recycled plastic bottles had contained products other than beverages.

C. Manufacturers replaced many plastic bottles, but few aluminum cans, with polymer containers.

D. The total weight of plastic bottles purchased by domestics increased at a slightly faster rate than the total weight of aluminum cans.

E. In many areas, plastic bottles had to be sorted by color of the plastic before being recycled, whereas aluminum cans required no sorting.


in question 2 i find it little weird to accept C as answer.my reasoning is as follows: the so called "polymer container" can be no different from "plastic bottles" ,after all "polymer" is a type of "plastic" and also "bottle" can be classified as "container". if i go by sheer definition of "container" then "anything that can contains "matter" is know as "container" so "bottle" is definitely a "container"

i feel that the original question (from prep) has removed this ambiguity by using different category of "substances" viz: "glass" ,"aluminum" and "plastic"