Over the last fifteen years, the consumption of beef has decreased

Question

Over the last fifteen years, the consumption of beef has decreased significantly in many parts of the world. This decrease has coincided with an increasing public awareness of the adverse environmental effects of cattle ranching. Thus, the decrease in beef consumption must have been caused by the consumers’ awareness of the environmentally damaging effects of cattle ranching.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation above?

A. On average, people consume twenty percent less beef today than they did fifteen years ago.
B. Habitual beef eaters may suffer mild gastrointestinal distress for a few weeks or so after significantly reducing their beef consumption. 
C. Beef prices increased steadily in the last fifteen years because of the degradation of land used to graze cattle. 
D. The consumption of poultry, fish, and other forms of seafood has increased over the last fifteen years.
E. Gourmet beef sales have held steady as sales of regular beef have declined.

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AdarshSambare · Answer

Conclusion being tested:
Beef consumption decreased because people became more aware of environmental harm from cattle ranching.
We need to weaken the causal claim.
Prethinking:
We should look for an alternative explanation for the drop in beef consumption.
Check options:
A. Just restates decrease → supports, not weakens
B. Health effects after stopping beef → irrelevant to why people stopped initially
C. Beef prices increased due to land degradation → strong alternative cause (economic reason for decrease)
D. Other meats increased → could be a substitution effect, but doesn’t explain why beef decreased (still secondary support)
E. Gourmet beef steady while regular beef declined → shifts in types, not overall cause
Best weakening answer: C
Because higher prices directly explain reduced consumption, breaking the “environmental awareness caused the decrease” assumption.
 Answer: C

divyansh843 · Answer

The conclusion can be summarised as:- Because of consumer awareness of environmentally damaging affects of cattle ranching, there is a decrease in beef consumption
A. On average, people consume twenty percent less beef today than they did fifteen years ago. - no effect of this on the conclusion
B. Habitual beef eaters may suffer mild gastrointestinal distress for a few weeks or so after significantly reducing their beef consumption. - no effect of this on the conclusion
C. Beef prices increased steadily in the last fifteen years because of the degradation of land used to graze cattle. - if beef prices increased and at the same time degradation of land used as occured, it suggests that the consumption has been same over the past 15 years and calls into question the conclusion
D. The consumption of poultry, fish, and other forms of seafood has increased over the last fifteen years. - no effect of this on the conclusion
E. Gourmet beef sales have held steady as sales of regular beef have declined. - no effect of this on the conclusion

Ans C

vasu1104 · Answer

over last fifteen years, beef consumption has decreased significantly in many parts. 
 at the same time there is an increasing public awareness of the adverse effect of environmental effects of cattle ranching. 
 conclusion= decrease must have been caused by awareness of environmentally damaging effect of cattle ranching.

here is the classic cause and effect relationship. we can find some other reason for the cause then we can attack it.

A. On average, people consume twenty percent less beef today than they did fifteen years ago. 
 but we already know consumption has gone down and this doesnt add anything new. reject.

B. Habitual beef eaters may suffer mild gastrointestinal distress for a few weeks or so after significantly reducing their beef consumption. 
 who cares? they will get used to it.

C. Beef prices increased steadily in the last fifteen years because of the degradation of land used to graze cattle. 
 okay so it has become more expensive that might be the reason for low consumption. this attacks the conclusion here. keep.

D. The consumption of poultry, fish, and other forms of seafood has increased over the last fifteen years. 
 but this has no impact on what we are discussing. reject.

E. Gourmet beef sales have held steady as sales of regular beef have declined. 
 that means they are avoiding beef by not jumping to other form of beef. so this rather strengthen it,

Adit_ · Answer

Option C  rightly points the best weakener out of all here.

BongBideshini · Answer

Conclusion: awareness caused the decrease. This is a  correlation mistaken for causation . We need an  alternative reason  for the drop in beef consumption.

A. On average, people consume twenty percent less beef today than they did fifteen years ago. 
This just restates the decrease. It does not explain  why  it happened.

B. Habitual beef eaters may suffer mild gastrointestinal distress after reducing beef consumption. 
This is about what happens after people reduce consumption. It does not explain what caused the reduction.

C. Beef prices increased steadily in the last fifteen years because of the degradation of land used to graze cattle. 
If beef became more expensive, people might buy less of it. This provides a clear alternative explanation for the decrease.
Strongly weakens the conclusion.

D. The consumption of poultry, fish, and other seafood has increased over the last fifteen years. 
This shows a shift in diet but does not explain why people moved away from beef. Could still be due to environmental awareness.

E. Gourmet beef sales have held steady as sales of regular beef have declined. 
This shows a pattern within beef consumption but does not explain the overall decline.

Ans (C)

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

C is the best choice.

Video explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Nzk5ZlhrU

VibhuAnurag · Answer

The argument says that   beef consumption has decreased and   awareness of environmental damage has increased. T  herefore, awareness caused the decrease in beef consumption. 
 This is a classic causation argument. T  wo things happened together   and the author assumes one caused the other.   To weaken the argument, we need an alternative explanation for the decline in beef consumption.

Option A 
 This simply restates the fact that beef consumption decreased.   It does not explain why consumption decreased, so it does not weaken the argument.

Option B 
 This discusses gastrointestinal distress after reducing beef consumption.   This has no clear connection to why people reduced consumption in the first place.   So it does not weaken the explanation.

Option C
This says beef prices increased steadily over the last fifteen years. This is a strong alternative explanation. If beef became significantly more expensive, many consumers may have reduced beef consumption because of cost rather than environmental concerns. So the decline in consumption may not have been caused primarily by environmental awareness. This directly weakens the argument’s causal conclusion.

Option D 
 This says consumption of poultry and seafood increased.   This may suggest people substituted other foods for beef, but it does not explain why they did so.   Environmental concerns could still be the reason.

Option E 
 This says gourmet beef sales remained steady while regular beef sales declined.   This is interesting, but it does not seriously undermine the argument.   People concerned about the environment could still reduce regular beef consumption more than luxury consumption.   This does not provide a strong alternative cause.

The answer is C.

Over the last fifteen years, the consumption of beef has decreased

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Over the last fifteen years, the consumption of beef has decreased

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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