The country of Verovia exports millions of tons of coal each year, mor

Hello, everyone. I came across this question earlier today and thought I would provide a full analysis for the benefit of the community. Note that we are looking for an answer that would help support the geographer's explanation, so this is a typical strengthen question. We do not need an ironclad answer, just one that most logically strengthens the explanation.


Sentence one is factual: Verovia exports... more [coal each year] than any other country in the region.

Sentence two is also factual, but now, we are told that Verovia imports a lot of coal each year.

Sentence three clarifies that the coal, whether imported or exported, is of the same variety, so it is not as though Verovia is importing some sort of exotic coal. The plot thickens...

The final sentence introduces the geographer, who explains that most coal is mined in the eastern part of the country, but that demand for coal in several cities exists on the opposite side of the country, presumably the western part, hundreds of kilometers away. If this is to explain why the largest coal-exporting country in the region would also need to import the same type of coal, we need to find a compelling reason behind this what.


Blink, and you might miss interior, or, in other words, the middle part of the country. If eastern and western Verovia are separated by impassible mountains for most of the year, then it makes sense that the east would ship out coal while the west, which might not produce enough coal to meet its needs, would bring some in from other countries. Perhaps this is a more viable or economic solution than waiting for the mountains to become passable again to send coal hundreds of kilometers from eastern to western Verovia. Finally, notice how fitting it is that a geographer offered the explanation in the passage. A geographer would most likely be knowledgeable about the major geographic features of a country. If you like to be cautious, just hold on to this one while you assess the other options.


The most dissatisfying part of this answer choice, to me, is the appositive in the middle. If Verovia is the largest coal producer in the region, then why would it need to turn to the third-largest producer for coal? Simply because it borders Verovia to the west? That is a tenuous connection at best. Where is the second-largest coal-producing country in the region? For all we know, it lies to the northwest or southwest of Verovia and also shares a border. In short, there is no compelling reason to assume that just because Gorosco happens to produce coal and also happens to lie west of Verovia, western Vorovia has turned its attention outward to meet its demand for coal.


No attention whatsoever is given to western Verovia or any other part of the country, and that is a real problem. We want to support the explanation behind the idea that, despite its apparent wealth in coal, Verovia would still find it desirable or necessary to import the resource. This information provides a blanket statement on all of Verovia and does not connect with the explanation the geographer provided.


How greedy of Ojondo, you might think. But the fact remains that, regardless of where Verovia exports its coal, the resource is still being culled and presumably exported from the eastern part of the country while the opposite side of the country is in want. If this is even tempting for you, consider that more than half could refer to, say, 50.1 percent of exports, and that some other country, perhaps one to the north, could consume all of the remaining 49.9 percent of Verovian coal. Would Ojondo really make that much more of a difference? Again, this has nothing to do with the explanation the geographer provided, so we cannot call such a consideration a strengthener.


No part of this fits. First, we get a cover-all statement on Verovia, not on any particular area within the country, so this apparently country-wide system of transit could affect all areas equally; then, it does not even use coal, the resource that the geographer was discussing. This answer choice might as well tell us that Verovians own more cats than dogs or tend to live longer than their neighbors in Ojondo or Gorosco. The word irrelevant comes to mind.

There you have it. If you narrowed the options down to (A) and (B), you were on the right track. If you selected (B), you have to learn to approach these CR questions the way a lawyer would look to dismantle information. Any target you can find, you want to mark as a doubt, and (B) ultimately leaves much to be desired, for reasons discussed above.

As always, good luck with your studies.

- Andrew