Self-study
P1
As part of an international effort to address environmental problems resulting from agricultural overproduction, hundreds of thousands of acres of surplus farmland throughout Europe will be taken out of production in coming years. ███
Problem and Solution ·
Problem: overproduction / solution: let farms lie fallow
We're farming too hard and that's harming the environment. Solution is to let farms sit there and don't plant anything.
Problem Details ·
Too few nutrients; too much fertilizer
Farming depleted nutrients and introduced fertilizers. That makes it difficult to restore the land to "natural balance of flora." In particular, thistles (a weed) will crowd out other flora.
Impractical Solution ·
Remove and replace the topsoil
Impractical because we're not talking about my backyard garden. We're talking at the scale of hundreds of thousands of acres.
Potential Solution ·
Artificially accelerate recovery
Netherlands is doing a study to see if they can speed up natural recovery.
P2
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Experimental Setup ·
Control v. intervention groups
Two control groups: (C1) lie fallow and (C2) grow corn. Two intervention groups: (I1) grow mixture of native flora and (I2) grow native flora plus clover and toadflax.
Results ·
Intervention works
Both intervention groups forced out thistles (a weed). The fallow control group (C1) was overtaken by thistles.
P3
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Experiment setup ·
Another intervention group
(C3) grow mixture of native flora and mix in 20 years recovered soil. This intervention group is meant to test whether microorganisms in the soil would have beneficial effects.
Results ·
Intervention works
Flora grew better on the enriched plots.
Conclusion ·
Microorganisms in the soil are important for restoring natural flora
Researchers conclude (hypothesize with supporting evidence) that over farmed land contain too many disease organisms and too few beneficial organisms.
Solution ·
Sow beneficial microorganisms into soil
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
25.
In which one of the █████████ █████████████ █████ ██ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ████
Question Type
Application
The correct answer will present a situation in which we have reason to believe the methods explored in the Netherlands study are LEAST helpful. The four wrong answers will present situations in which the methods ARE likely to be helpful or situations that can’t be expected to present any advantage or disadvantage to using the techniques.
a
The field's natural █████████ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████████████
Adding beneficial microorganisms and native seeds to the field might be able to speed up restoration of the field. So (A) describes a situation that fits the methods explored in the Netherlands study.
b
The field's topsoil ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████
The methods described would be least advantageous in this circumstance, because topsoil replacement is an option. Replacing topsoil is the
c
The field has ████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████
Adding beneficial microorganisms and native seeds to the field might be able to speed up restoration of the field. So (C) describes a situation that fits the methods explored in the Netherlands study.
d
The field has ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████
We have no reason to think the potential to support commercial plants renders the methods explored in the Netherlands study any more or less advantageous.
e
The field is ████████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████
We have no reason to think that being adjacent to other fields where corn is growing renders the methods explored in the Netherlands study any more or less advantageous. We can still take healthy soil with microorganisms and place it in the field that we’re trying to help recover.