The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declin

Question

The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declined, partly because they are captured for sale as pets and partly because people riding all-terrain vehicles have damaged their habitat. Targland plans to halt this population decline by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot. Targland's officials predict that these measures will be adequate, since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle.

Which of the following would it be most important to establish in order to evaluate the officials' prediction?

(A) Whether possessing the tortoises as pets remains legally permissible in Targland.

(B) Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes.

(C) Whether the Red Dessert Tortoises are most active during the day or at night

(D) Whether people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises

(E) Whether the Targland authorities held public hearings before restricting entry by vehicle into the Red Desert.

ChrisLele · Accepted Answer

The argument states that one factor in the decline of the turtle population is all-terrain vehicles. The plan is to block "the current access routes...". However, what if the all-terrain vehicles enter the park through the current access routes? Therefore (B) is clearly the answer.

(D), while tempting, can be discounted because of the information at the very end of the paragraph, "it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle." Therefore those walking in the park will not able to easily capture the tortoises and take them home, thereby reducing their numbers.

Hope that helps

venmic · Answer

The population of desert tortoises in Targland’s Red Desert has declined, partly because they are captured for sale as pets and partly because people riding all-terrain vehicles have damaged their habitat. Targland plans to halt this population decline by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot. Targland’s officials predict that these measures will be adequate, since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle. Which of the following would it be most important to establish in order to evaluate the officials’ prediction?

A. Whether possessing the tortoises as pets remains legally permissible in Targland
B. Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes
C. Whether the Red Desert tortoises are most active during the day or at night
D. Whether people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises
E. Whether the Targland authorities held public hearings before restricting entry by vehicle into the Red Desert

Is the answer  B because if there is another route people will access that and so the conclusion fails is that the reason for the answer what is wrong with D it could be possible that people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises - Strengthen who travel on foot in the Red Desert DO NOT often encounter the tortoises - weaken this could also be evaluate right where is the problem?

sachinn · Answer

I will go with A. The officials want to control the decline in population of the tortoise and they have suggested to stop the use of all-terrain vehicles in the region. They believe that all-terrain vehicles are necessary to capture tortoises to sell them as pets. If the tortoise are still permitted to be used as pets, the people capturing tortoises may find other means to capture them and those means may also disturb the tortoise habitat thus declining their population.

chan_nhu78 · Answer

B is the answer, since the plan won't be successful if there is any other access route into the desert.

riz03 · Answer

https://www.drgmat.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 0&p=75#p75

aviator83 · Answer

B.

Whether possessing the tortoises as pets remains legally permissible in Targland. 
- law can only put a ban, but poaching can still continue.
Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes.
- correct - if all entry points are closed the step should be effective. it is imp. to establish this point in order evaluate the official's prediction.
Whether the Red Dessert Tortoises are most active during the day or at night
- night/day is out of question here in order to evaluate official's prediction.
Whether people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises
- whether they do/not may not be sufficient to evaluate official's prediction.
Whether the Targland authorities held public hearings before restricting entry by vehicle inot the Red Desert.
- public hearings are not really required, once regulations are in place people would come to know. however establishing this point is not relevant to evaluating the official's prediction.

bsd_lover · Answer

Straight B - it is the only one that deals with the premise of allowing all terrain vehicles into the desert.

gmat blows · Answer

I chose B but I was struggling between B and D.

Is D wrong because the stem states that 'it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle' and therefore can not question that fact, i.e. people who encounter the tortoises will NOT be able to capture them for sale?

thanks.

duriangris · Answer

Hi there

There is two factor that lowers the population: habitat damage (with cars) and tortoise hunting (requires a car)

D is useless because 
1/ we already know they won't be able to hunt without a car
2/ they won't be able to damage the habitats with their car

B is a better answer because if people have other ways to access with their vehicles, then the whole policy becomes useless.

Hope that helps

duriangris · Answer

Hi there

There is two factor that lowers the population: habitat damage (with cars) and tortoise hunting (requires a car)

D is useless because 
1/ we already know they won't be able to hunt without a car
2/ they won't be able to damage the habitats with their car

B is a better answer because if people have other ways to access with their vehicles, then the whole policy becomes useless.

Hope that helps

thevenus · Answer

"........ since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle........"
the evaluation od sucg prediction should firmly based on the vehicle entry,(B) has it.

metallicafan · Answer

+1 B

D is wrong because it doesn't matter whether people walking in the desert find tortoises. You need a car to collect them.

mohnish104 · Answer

D is a trick option. There's difference between encountering a tortoise and catching one. A tortoise can be as small football or as huge a 10 footballs (excuse the comparison), but u get the point. :teleport

sahilchaudhary · Answer

Easy though tricky question.
I marked D and got it wrong, but now I understood why B is correct.

Nitinaka19 · Answer

Hi,

Seeing the option B, First of all conclusion says the plan is implemented to halt the population decline of the tortoise by blocking the current access route. So the conclusion talks about current access route only. Anything which weaken or strengthen the conclusion should talks about current access only. Its no where mention about the other entry/access points. It can be a case in other access points tortoise don't face any problem or they face who knows.

Other option seems to be out of scope. But help me out to clear my understanding?

Thanks

egmat · Answer

Hi Nitin, What does the plan seek to achieve? Halt the population decline of tortoise. Right? How does it plan to achieve that? by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot Right? What if all-terrain vehicles enter the desert from some routes other than current routes? Would the plan be successful then? No. Agreed? Now, if the success of the plan depends on the above point, how can you say that "other routes" are OFS. Remember, anything that impacts the argument is not out of scope. You need to be very careful in marking options as OFS. Just because an option talks about a thing which has not been talked about in the argument does not make that option statement OFS. Only when an option statement has no impact on the argument and is completely irrelevant can you say that the option is irrelevant. Does it help?

Thanks, Chiranjeev

Nitinaka19 · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for your early response, But could you please help me out here as i'm not able to understand this statement "What if all-terrain vehicles enter the desert from some routes other than current routes? Would the plan be successful then?"

As our conclusion is to halt the decline of tortoise population by restriction the vehicles through current route.Then assumption shouldn't be linking these two statement. instead of stating about other route .

Or it is linked in this way like the route is irrelevant here ,only thing we should consider here is the vehicle should not be entering as vehicle has caused a decline .

Could you help me explaining how does it linked.

Thanks

uzbekguy · Answer

I agree with the points made by Nitinaka. The stem states that the plan will be achieved by blocking current access routes, doesn't it mean we should not even worry about any other access to the desert?

Need explanation.
Thanks!

Need explanation.
Thanks!

mathurvarun · Answer

This is a tricky question in which a word can make a difference.

B) Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes ( Notice the words Current Access routes)

Yes : - If it can enforce regulations on other routes as well then it is possible that measures are adequate. It helps in official prediction.

No :- It destroys official prediction. If there are other access routes as well then banning one route won't help. People can go from other routes as well.

D) Question stem says that its difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle. But in this option it says people encouter tortoises. May be the tortoise are so heavy that people can see them but they can't carry them. So it doesn't affect the prediction. (Encounter is different from collection).

The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declin

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The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declin

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