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Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this..

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Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this.. [#permalink] New post   06 Jun 2019, 17:14
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77% (01:28) correct 23% (01:49) wrong based on 249 sessions
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Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this year has greatly improved the financial situation of the farmers in our country, most of whom were facing huge losses until last year.

Shanon: Your conclusion is incorrect. According to a recent survey, as many as 90% of the farmers in the country made losses of 20% to 30% in their farming operations.

Which of the following casts the most serious doubt on Shanon’s argument?
(A) Most farmers are now more satisfied with their farming operations than they were when they were using ordinary seeds.
(B) Monetary loss or gain is not the only way of judging the benefit of the new highyielding varieties of seeds.
(C) The high yielding varieties of seeds in general cost no more than ordinary seeds do.
(D) The use of high yielding varieties of seeds allows farmers to cut down their fertilizer requirement by more than half.
(E) Until last year, the average loss suffered by farmers in the country was between 100% and 150%.
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E
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Re: Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this.. [#permalink] New post   11 Jun 2019, 05:17
Quote:
Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this year has greatly improved the financial situation of the farmers in our country, most of whom were facing huge losses until last year.

Shanon: Your conclusion is incorrect. According to a recent survey, as many as 90% of the farmers in the country made losses of 20% to 30% in their farming operations.

Which of the following casts the most serious doubt on Shanon’s argument?
(A) Most farmers are now more satisfied with their farming operations than they were when they were using ordinary seeds.
(B) Monetary loss or gain is not the only way of judging the benefit of the new highyielding varieties of seeds.
(C) The high yielding varieties of seeds in general cost no more than ordinary seeds do.
(D) The use of high yielding varieties of seeds allows farmers to cut down their fertilizer requirement by more than half.
(E) Until last year, the average loss suffered by farmers in the country was between 100% and 150%.


The correct answer here is E. This question is asking us to weaken Shanon's argument, so we must first find out what that is. The catch is that her conclusion is not stated independently, but rather as an opposition to Bob's argument. So her conclusion really is that farmers are in a worse economical situation now, rather than better as Bob claims.

Overall, this means that we want to say that farmers are NOT worse off financially now.

A - The farmers being satisfied doesn't tell us that their financial situation has improved. There are many reasons to be more satisfied, including for example, saving labour time. OUT

B - Maybe this statement is true, but it is also irrelevant. Our concern is financial situation, so it is what we care about. OUT

C - This just tells us one are in which the costs don't increase. You could say from this that they have more crops and therefore more profits, but that requires a whole bunch of extra assumptions, and therefore is not something that impacts our argument directly. OUT

D - Again, fewer fertilisers may mean lower costs and higher profits, but we require many more assumptions, making this one not essential to the argument. OUT

E - This actually does suggest that the losses have shrunk greatly, pointing to the conclusion that farmers are NOT actually worse off than before. CORRECT

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Re: Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this.. [#permalink] New post   11 May 2020, 06:53
E.
Last year losses were 150%
Current year losses are 20-30%
Improvement is there due to new variety seeds.

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Re: Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this.. [#permalink] New post   24 Nov 2020, 04:00
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dcummins wrote:
Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this year has greatly improved the financial situation of the farmers in our country, most of whom were facing huge losses until last year.

Shanon: Your conclusion is incorrect. According to a recent survey, as many as 90% of the farmers in the country made losses of 20% to 30% in their farming operations.

Which of the following casts the most serious doubt on Shanon’s argument?
(A) Most farmers are now more satisfied with their farming operations than they were when they were using ordinary seeds.
(B) Monetary loss or gain is not the only way of judging the benefit of the new highyielding varieties of seeds.
(C) The high yielding varieties of seeds in general cost no more than ordinary seeds do.
(D) The use of high yielding varieties of seeds allows farmers to cut down their fertilizer requirement by more than half.
(E) Until last year, the average loss suffered by farmers in the country was between 100% and 150%.


Official Explanation



Answer: E

To weaken Shanon’s argument, we have to show that the 20-30% losses being suffered by farmers is an improvement over their earlier financial situation. E does this best by stating that the losses the farmers were making earlier were much higher. So the use of highyielding varieties has indeed improved their financial situation in relative terms.

(A) Bob clearly talks about the improvement in the financial situation of the farmers. Their satisfaction levels are of no consequence to us.

(B) Same as A.

(C) The fact still remains that the farmers have made losses of 20-30%. So then how can we conclude that their financial situation has improved?

(D) Same as C.
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Re: Bob: The introduction of the new high-yielding variety of seeds this.. [#permalink]
24 Nov 2020, 04:00
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