Self-study
The local agricultural official gave the fruit growers of the District 10 Farmers' Cooperative a new pesticide that they applied for a period of three years to their pear orchards in place of the pesticide they had formerly applied. ██████ █████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The agricultural official presents the hypothesis that a new pesticide is more effective than the old pesticide at protecting pears against insects, at least over a short-term period. This hypothesis is based on observing that when pear farmers in District 10 switched from the old pesticide to the new pesticide for three years, they lost fewer pears to insects than during the previous three years.
Notable Assumptions
The agricultural official assumes that just because there were fewer pears lost to insects while the new pesticide was in use, the new pesticide was the cause of this change. In other words, the official assumes that there wasn’t some other factor which could have been the true cause of the farmers’ results.
9.
The official's conclusion is most ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████ █ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████
a
peach trees grown ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
peach trees grown ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
c
pear trees grown ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
pear trees grown ██ █ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████████
e
pear trees grown ██ █ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).