Q12 - Gene splicing can give rise

[tzyc]

Shouldn't they put something like "But" between the first sentence and the second sentence in the stimulus?
When I first read it, I was kind of confused whether the author is for or against gene splicing and got this question wrong...
Is the first sentence just background information?

Thank you.

[Matt.Goodman]

The important thing to remember with MBT and MSS questions is that the stimulus is not necessarily an argument. This is the case here. The author is merely presenting facts regarding Gene Splicing and it's consequences, not unveiling their own opinion. But it can be inferred from what he say's regarding Gene Splicing that it should be used cautiously. (B) is the most strongly supported answer because if we went on a splicing rampage we would undoubtably introduce genes governing the production of toxins or carcinogens, which are harmful, and worse off we might not even know until it's too late! Do we wan't a bunch of genetically modified animals running around producing toxins and carcinogens that we can easily detect? Of course not, this should be limited and used cautiously.

(A) We have no idea if ALL toxin production is genetically controlled. All we know is that some toxin production is a product of gene splicing.

(C) This is in direct contradiction of what is said in the stimulus, we are told that gene splicing can give rise to new varieties of farm animals.

(D) Whoa, where did cancer come from? And to make this answer worse it uses MOST as a modifier, all were told is that toxins and carcinogens CAN come about.

(E) You have to make quite an assumption for this to be strongly supported. We have NO reason to believe this is the case or will be the case according to the stimulus.

Im new to this so any feedback or revisions would be greatly appreciated.

[tzyc]

I like your explanation, thanks!

[Mab6q]

This is an easy question, but I originally hesitated to choose B because the passage seems to be pretty descriptive whereas B was a normative statement. I don't think that's common on inference questions. Any thoughts on when that is okay vs. not okay?