Self-study
Support Today's farmers plant only a handful of different strains of a given crop. █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████ █ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ █ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that a disease that would have had minor impacts on food supply in the past would be devastating today. This prediction is based on the observation that today’s crops lack diversity compared to crops in the past because farmers today only plant a few strains of a given crop.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that farmers today don’t have any way besides diversity to protect against diseases.
19.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████
a
In the past, ████ ████████ █████ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████████
The conclusion discusses specifically the diseases that would have had only minor impacts on the food supply in the past; the diseases referenced in (A) are outside of the scope of the argument.
b
Affected crops can ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████
This weakens the argument. It gives a reason that a disease that would have had a minor impact on the food supply in the past would not be devastating today: today’s farmers have another way to protect against the disease other than crop diversity.
c
Some of the ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████
This compares the less popular strains of the past with the popular modern strains; this comparison isn’t relevant. (C) also tells us that some old strains were more robust than the popular modern strains, which is consistent with the claim that today’s crops are more vulnerable.
d
Humans today have ████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██████
The argument is about the crops that make up the food supply, not specifically human diets as a whole, so this is not relevant to the argument.
e
Today's crops are ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █ ███ ███████████ ████
The argument is specifically about the damage caused by diseases; it could be the case that today’s crops are safer from insects and weeds, but that diseases are still able to devastate today’s food supply.