PT135.S3.P4.Q27 > 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

27.

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

Question Type

Analogy (RC)

The solution described in the last paragraph involves seeding land with beneficial microorganisms and native plants seeds. In more abstract terms, we’re trying to add competitors to thistles (the native plants) and stuff that helps these competitors grow (the beneficial microorganisms).

A newspaper works ██ ███████ █████ █ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ █ █████ ██████

The solution doesn’t involve getting stuff that helps thistles grow to start supporting native plants instead. There’s no indication that the solution involves diverting resources from one plant to another.

14%

A newspaper works ██ ███████ █████ █ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ████ █ █████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████████████

This is the best answer. We add beneficial microorganisms to help defend the native plants from disease organisms. This is analogous to the way in which the newspaper publishes editorials (beneficial microorganisms) defending the rival party (native plants) from attacks by broadcast journalists (disease microorganisms).

44%

A newspaper works ██ ███████ █████ █ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████ █ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████

The solution doesn’t involve depriving thistles of resources. So “discouraging supporters of Party A” doesn’t have an analogous element.

17%

A newspaper works ██ ███████ █████ █ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██

The solution doesn’t involve attacking something that supported thistles. It involves defending the native plants using microorganisms.

16%

A newspaper works ██ ███████ █████ █ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████

The solution doesn’t involve causing some conflict between things supporting thistles. So “create antagonism between two factions” doesn’t have an analogous element.

PrepTest 135 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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