Group 17 Question 84: An increase in tourism has had an adverse...

Official Explanation:

An increase in tourism has had an adverse effect on the Shenna Plains area. The panthers and other big cats that once hunted freely have been forced to find prey in the nearby hilly region where they don’t have as much access to their usual diet of rodents and other small animals. Bridges have been built to cross the network of rivers and streams in the plains, and this has led to the erosion of the riverbanks. The local authorities have decided that limiting tourism to the plains to mornings and early afternoons would improve the overall health of the environment.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument that limiting tourism to certain hours of the day will improve the overall health of the environment?

A. The local authorities have made their decision with the support of the people who live on the plains.
B. Local tour guides have stated that they can show tourists around the plains during the daytime without the construction of any additional bridges.
C. The environment of the plains began to degrade at the same time that tourism to the area increased.
D. Many of the big cats that live on the plains only hunt in the evening hours.
E. Many tourists prefer to tour the plains from an overhead tram system.

Question Type: Strengthen
Boil It Down: Since tourism has negatively impacted the environment, authorities should limit tourism to certain daylight hours
Goal: Find the option that would most strongly strengthen the conclusion that tourism should be limited to certain hours.

Analysis:

To start, here is a quick breakdown of the argument’s structure:

Argument structure:
(P) = Premise/Evidence/Support (C) = Conclusion

P1: Tourism has negatively impacted the plains environment
P2: (Assumption: Limiting tourism will benefit the environment)

C: Limiting tourism to mornings and early afternoons will improve the health of the overall environment

To move from P1 to C, there is an unstated assumption in the argument. By identifying the assumption, we can identify a possible weak point which the correct answer choice can shore up. The argument assumes that limiting tourism will help improve the environment. Given that this is a strengthener, we will look for ways in which that assumption can be challenged. In this case, the idea that jumps out in the conclusion is that tourism will be limited to mornings and evenings. One objection is, what about the animals that hunt or are active during the daytime? The correct answer will show that this objection does not apply to the scenario.

An alternate way of thinking about this question is to recognize that the argument tries to link the negative impact of tourism on the environment to the recommendation of limiting tourism to mornings and early afternoons. To strengthen this argument, the correct answer will link these two concepts. Incorrect answers will fail to address one or both of these concepts, thereby being irrelevant.

A. The local authorities have made their decision with the support of the people who live on the plains.
Incorrect. The correct answer needs to strengthen the link between 1. the premise regarding the negative impact of tourism on the environment to 2. the conclusion that recommends limiting tourism to mornings and early afternoons. Answer choice A, which deals with support of the locals does not address either of these two ideas. As such, answer choice A is irrelevant.

B. Local tour guides have stated that they can show tourists around the plains during the daytime without the construction of any additional bridges.
Incorrect. The fact that no more bridges will be built will only keep the environmental impact of tourism from getting worse. The conclusion suggests that the environment will improve. Plateauing vs. improving are two different things. As such, answer choice B is irrelevant.

C. The environment of the plains began to degrade at the same time that tourism to the area increased.
Incorrect. This answer choice strengthens the premise that tourism has negatively impacted the environment. However, strengthening a premise only weakly strengthens the argument. Rather we are looking for an answer choice that strengthens the move from the premise to the conclusion. Look for an answer choice that strengthen the argument more than this choice.

D. Many of the big cats that live on the plains only hunt in the evening hours.
Correct. This answer choice shoots down the possible objection we had to the assumption in P2; what about the morning and early afternoon hunters? Answer choice D says that that objection does not apply, because many of the big cats only hunt during evening hours. So, limiting tourism to the day, though it will still affect daytime hunters, will allow the nighttime hunters to be less affected by tourism, thereby leading to an improvement of the environment.

E. Many tourists prefer to tour the plains from an overhead tram system.
Incorrect. The correct answer needs to strengthen the link between 1. the premise regarding the negative impact of tourism on the environment to 2. the conclusion that recommends limiting tourism to mornings and early afternoons. Answer choice E, which deals with tourist preferences, fails to address either of these two ideas. As such, answer choice E is irrelevant.


Key Takeaway:
Identify key assumptions being made in the argument. For strengtheners, the assumption can hide an objection or weak point in the argument and the correct answer will strengthen the assumption, thereby strengthening the argument. In this question, the assumption hid a possible objection related to morning and early afternoon hunters. The correct answer choice strengthened the assumption by responding to the objection.


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Great work winterschool and rishi02! You two cracked the code on another CR question - kudos to you both!

We just posted Question 85, so go check it out and we'll be back Friday to see how you did!