Self-study
Support Robust crops not only withstand insect attacks more successfully than other crops, they are also less likely to be attacked in the first place, since Support insects tend to feed on weaker plants. ███████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ █ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that growing crops in good soil is preferable to using pesticides. Why? Because robust crops are less vulnerable than weaker crops, and pesticides don’t address this vulnerability.
Notable Assumptions
The author is claiming that good soil is preferable to pesticides because pesticides do not address plant vulnerability—but we don’t know that good soil does address those vulnerabilities. We need to know that good soil has a positive relationship with plant robustness.
23.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
The application of █████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████████
(A) chooses two elements of good soil and causally links it to a third element of good soil. We don’t need that relationship to be true. It doesn’t matter how good soil is composed as long as it helps crops be less vulnerable.
b
Insects never attack █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████
Too strong. It isn’t necessary for good soil to be a surefire way to avoid all insect attacks. It’s only minimally necessary that good soil is linked to lower crop vulnerability.
c
The application of ██████████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████
(C) is describing a shortcoming of pesticides, but we don’t need this. The argument has already addressed a failing of pesticides. We need something to close the gap between good soil and lowered crop vulnerability.
d
Crops that are █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████
This must be true for the author’s premises to support her conclusion. If negated, there is no link between good soil and crop robustness/lowered crop vulnerability.
e
Growing crops without ███ ███ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████
(E) says that abstaining from pesticides produces a more vulnerable plant than if pesticides had been used. The author argues that pesticides are less preferable to good soil because they don’t address robustness, but (E) is trying to introduce something contrary to that premise.