Self-paced
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 ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
(A) has two problems. First, the argument discusses pear trees. Peach trees aren't useful as a control group. Second, the control group should be treated with the old pesticide, not the new.
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 ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
(B) has the same problems as (A). First, peach trees aren't useful as a control group when the argument discusses pear trees. Second, the control group should be treated only with the old pesticide.
c
pear trees grown ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
(C) defines a useful control group: trees that are similar in as many respects as possible, but treated with the old pesticide. If these trees show no reduction of fruit losses to insects, we can be reasonably sure that it's really the new pesticide making the difference.
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 ██ █ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████████
(D) has two problems. First, these trees are grown in a different location from the ones discussed in the argument. That means the difference could be attributed to their location, not the pesticide. Second, they're not treated with any pesticide, so we can't compare the old and new pesticides.
e
pear trees grown ██ █ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████████
(E) has two problems. First, like (D), location matters! The control group should be located in the same district as the trees discussed in the argument, to rule out environmental factors. Second, the control group needs to be treated with the old, not new, pesticide.
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).