Self-paced
Sigatoka disease drastically reduces the yield of banana trees and is epidemic throughout the areas of the world where bananas are grown. ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that most of the world’s banana crop is not seriously threatened by Sigatoka disease.
Why does the author believe this?
Because most large banana plantations are in locations where fungicides can be used. These fungicides can keep Sigatoka disease under control.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that most of the world’s banana crop is grown large banana plantations. (The author’s overlooking the possibility that even though most large plantations are in areas where fungicide can be used, those plantations might not produce most of the world’s bananas.)
3.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
It will eventually ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument doesn’t rely on any claims about future banana strains.
b
Large plantations produce ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if large plantations do NOT produce most of the world’s bananas — then the fact most large plantations are in places we can use fungicide would not establish that most of the world’s banana crop is safe from Sigatoka. This raises the possibility that most bananas are actually grown in places where fungicide can’t be used.
c
Sigatoka disease spreads ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████
Not necessary, because the argument never compares the speed of Sigatoka spread among large plantations and small banana groves. Even if the disease spreads at an equal rate in both areas, that doesn’t undermine the author’s reasoning.
d
Sigatoka disease is ███ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ██████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns only Sigatoka disease. The author never argues that bananas aren’t threatened by other kinds of diseases.
e
Most of the ██████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████
Not necessary, because the small banana groves are merely one place mentioned where bananas happen to be grown. We have no reason to think the author believes most of any kind of banana trees are found in small banana groves as opposed to other places bananas might be grown.