PT135.S3.P4.Q20 > Analytics

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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Results · Intervention works

Flora grew better on the enriched plots.

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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

20.

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

Question Type

Main point

In a Problem-Analysis passage, if the author focuses on a solution, then the main point should capture that solution. Here, the author focuses on a potential solution to the problem of agricultural production resulting in unproductive farmland. The potential solution is adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds to heavily used soil.

The rehabilitation of ████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ██ █ ███████████ ████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██████████

This best captures the main point, which is that a potential solution to overfarmed land is adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds to heavily used soil.

91%

Restoring plant diversity ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███████

This doesn’t capture the potential solution, which involves adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds.

The damaging effects ██ █████████ ████████████ ██████████████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██████████

This doesn’t capture the potential solution, which involves adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds. The author doesn’t merely argue for the need to modify current practices; she suggests a particular solution can be effective.

Soil on farmland ███████ ██ ██████████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████

This doesn’t capture the potential solution, which involves adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds.

Agricultural overproduction tends ██ █████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██████

This doesn’t capture the potential solution, which involves adding beneficial microorganisms and a wide variety of native plant seeds.

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PrepTest 135 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 20

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PrepTest 135 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 20

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