Self-study
There are 1.3 billion cows worldwide, and this population is growing to keep pace with the demand for meat and milk. █████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ██████████████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The amount of methane released because of cows would be reduced if they had better diets. This is because good diets make them produce less methane.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that giving cows healthier diets doesn’t have an undesirable consequence, such as causing them to produce less meat or milk. This may make it necessary to have more cows to compensate for decreased production per cow, thus potentially increasing methane production.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Cows given good-quality █████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████████
This strengthens the argument by reinforcing the assumption that feeding cows better diets would not limit their production of meat or milk. (A) says cows would produce less methane but even more milk and meat.
b
Carbon and hydrogen, ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████
This does not affect the argument. Cow feed having carbon and hydrogen doesn’t mean anything for our argument, as we know that healthier feed makes them produce less methane.
c
Most farmers would ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██████
This does not affect the argument. The conclusion is not about whether farmers should or could give their cows healthier diets. The conclusion is about what would happen if they did.
Fighting the hypothetical
Fighting the hypothetical
Answers that aren't relevant because they ignore a hypothetical condition that we're supposed to treat as true. (e.g., the conclusion says "If John is hungry, he'll order pizza" and an answer says, "John isn't hungry")
d
Worldwide, more methane ██ ████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████████
This does not affect the argument. The conclusion is still valid—regardless of which cows produce more methane, all cows’ methane production would decrease if given healthy diets.
e
Per liter, methane ███████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ █ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████
This does not affect the argument, which is solely about methane. The conclusion that methane production would decrease is not impacted by whether methane or carbon dioxide contributes more to global warming.