PrepTest 128 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 2

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The 50 million sheep of New Zealand outnumber its people 13 to 1, the highest such ratio in the world. ██ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ █ █████ ██ ████ █████████ █████ ██████ █████████ ███

Intro to Topic · New Zealand wool industry

Golden age in the 1950s.

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Problem · Decline in wool production and profitability

Details of Problem · Competition from synthetics

Downward pressure on prices of "strong wool."

Solution · Improve productivity to improve profitability

Productivity can be improved by adopting the best management and breeding practices.

Solution · Better farm management

Status Quo · Producers are divided

Professional farms achieve high profitability. Family farms do not. Hooking this back to the previous paragraph, presumably the idea is that the family farms can learn management practices from the professionals.

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Solution · Establish commercial genetic research company

Not to increase wool processing efficiency. Instead, to focus on producing better quality wool more cheaply.

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Which one of the following ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██████ █████

farmers' switching their ████ ██ █████ ████

This is a result of the decline in wool price, but not the cause.

market competition from █████████ █████████

The author identifies competition from synthetic wool as a factor driving down the price of clean strong wool.

99%

market competition from ██████████ ████ ███████

The author mentions Australian wool production as part of a comparison to New Zealand’s wool production, but doesn’t identify competition from Australia as a cause of the decline in wool price.

competition from cotton ███████ ███ █████████ ████

The author mentions cotton growers to show the productivity increase that’s possible with better management, but doesn’t identify competition with cotton growers as a cause of the decline in wool price.

the deep division ██ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ █████

The author mentions there’s a divison between profesional farms and family farms, but doesn’t identify this as a cause of the decline in wool price.

PrepTest 128 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 2

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