Self-study
Consumer advocate: Some agricultural crops are now being genetically engineered to produce important pharmaceuticals. ████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ █ ██████████████ ████ ██████ ████ █ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████ █ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
A Consumer Advocate hypothesizes that genetically engineered foods produced for pharmaceuticals raise the likelihood that these drugs will end up in the general food supply. This is because drug-producing plants can pollinate nearby non-drug-producing plants, thus converting them into drug-producers.
Notable Assumptions
The Consumer Advocate assumes that non-drug-producing plants that are converted will not be removed from the food supply.
The author also assumes that the genetic areas impacted by the drug-producing plants are parts that are harvested and eventually enter the food supply
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████
a
As far as ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████
The argument is not concerned with the “danger” of these drugs in the food supply. It is only concerned with the increased likelihood of the drugs in the food supply
b
If pollen from █ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██████
While this provides a way to limit the chance of cross-pollination, it does not say whether this will actually happen. It is phrased as if-then, not something that will definitely occur.
c
The genetically engineered █████ ████ ███████ ███████████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████
Just because the drug-producing plants are not among the largest portions of the general food supply, it does not weaken the argument that they are more likely to enter the food supply. Maybe that likelihood is not as high, but it is still there.
d
In crops genetically ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████████████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████████
This suggests that if cross-pollination were to occur, the harvested parts of the plants would not contain the pharmaceuticals and thereby not enter the food supply.
e
If pollen from █ ██████████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████ █ ██████████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ █████
Although this suggests that crops altered by cross-pollination could be identified, it does not give enough evidence to assume that this will decrease the likelihood of drugs entering the food supply.