Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants

Question

Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly among people new to gardening. Accordingly, we will no longer publish articles or accept advertisements praising the beauty of rare wildflowers. Most such plants sold to gardeners have been difficult to propagate under cultivation, so plant sellers often collect them in the wild. Our new policy is part of our efforts to halt this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the wisdom of the magazine's new policy as a way of pursuing the intended effect?

(A) When people new to gardening buy plants, they often fail to take adequate care of the plants that they buy and become discouraged from buying those varieties again.

(B) Plant sellers who sell rare wildflowers have no reasonably inexpensive alternate way to offer their wares directly to new gardeners.

(C) The demand for rare wildflowers rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers.

(D) The propagation of rare wildflowers often depends on the plant's interaction with other organisms in their environment such as plants that create suitable soil conditions or insects and birds that disperse seeds.

(E) Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.

parker · Accepted Answer

There are some great observations above--I wanted to point out a couple of things.

GyanOne makes some very good points about the scope of the argument, but I disagree with one part of his/her analysis--the situation of the plants in the wild. The magazine doesn't want to publish articles about rare wildflowers because this publication could lead to increased sales, and those sold wildflowers would have to be *collected* in (or stolen from) the wild because the plants are difficult to propagate/cultivate in the non-wild. The magazine's goal is to help "half this yearly plundering of our native plant populations"--to decrease the theft of native plants from the wild.

I agree completely that all four of the incorrect answers are out for "scope" reasons...the conclusion deals exclusively with trying to decrease the theft of plants from the wild. We're therefore looking for an answer that would make us WEAKEN the conclusion that abstaining from the publication of rare-wildflower articles would help prevent wildflower plundering.

(A) What happens to the plants once people buy them is largely irrelevant, since these people have already bought the plants (and therefore the plundering has already occurred). If the people are less likely to buy those plants again, that fact would--if anything--decrease the number of wildflowers plundered down the road (although not immediately, since these people already bought the plants once). At best this answer choice has no effect, and at worst it actually strengthens the conclusion.  Eliminate .

(B) Who cares about the expense? The reason given for the flowers being plundered is that they cannot be cultivated, not that they are expensive. Out of scope.  Eliminate .

(C) We don't care if there aren't enough plants that can be stolen--we want them not to be stolen in the first place! Out of scope.  Eliminate .

(D) This choice gives the reason that wildflowers are difficult to propagate in non-wild circumstances, but doesn't affect how we might prevent their theft. Out of scope.  Eliminate .

(E) At first glance, this choice doesn't seem directly applicable-- the plants have already been collected (stolen). However, if the rare wildflowers can eventually be grown in non-wild conditions ("propagated in nurseries"), there will be less demand to "collect"(steal) them from the wild. So, counter-intuitively, the current collection/theft of plants from the wild could slow the future collection/theft of those same plants. That possibility runs counter to the magazine's conclusion, so this is our answer.

GyanOne · Answer

Lets set up the question first: The magazine wants to discontinue featuring rare wildflowers. This is because articles in the magazine spur the sale of plants featured in the magazine, particularly among people new to gardening. Why does the magazine not want to support the sale of rare wildflowers? 
The reason is that rare wildflowers cannot be cultivated, so sellers of these plants cultivate them in the wild. When rare wildflowers are cultivated in the wild, they replace native plant populations (this also means rare wildflowers are not native to the region). The magazine wants to stop this. 
We need to select the choice that invalidates the magazine's strategy as a valid choice of action to meet their objective (halting the replacement or native plant varieties by rare wildflowers).

(A): It is irrelevant that people become discouraged to buy the same plants again. That they buy them once is enough to spur demand for these plants. The magazine's policy will have its intended effect on this group of people by discouraging them from buying even the first time. Incorrect.
(B): This is irrelevant and has no effect on plant sellers wanting to grow rare wildflowers. This does not invalidate the magazine's policy of trying to decrease demand for rare wildflowers. Incorrect.
(C): Even if the demand for rare wildflowers does not exceed the number of plants that can be collated by plant sellers, this still does not prevent sellers from growing these plants. The magazine's strategy will still slow demand for rare wildflowers and will have its effect. Incorrect.
(D): This does not invalidate the magazine's strategy in any way. Incorrect. 
(E): CORRECT. If revenues from the sale of plants collected in the wild is helping fund new techniques for cultivating these plants in nurseries, then this will ultimately help to protect native plant species by reducing the number of non-native plants grown in the wild. The magazine's strategy of decreasing the demand for these plants, thus decreasing their sales and their cultivation in the wild, is therefore invalidated because it will decrease the funds available for the research into new techniques for cultivation of these plants in nurseries.

Yalephd · Answer

IMO the answer is E
The policy's intended effect is to protect the wildflowers by minimizing sale of the plant. However, E tells us that if they actually promote sale of the plant, revenues from the sales can support the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.

mayansd · Answer

hmm, solved this question in 1 minute and selected B as the correct option, just by reading the words "no alternate ways". I thought that the magazine's policy to prevent the publishing of articles will still not have the desired effect as plant sellers will continue to plunder native plant population due to lack of any alternate inexpensive ways.

As option B is wrong, I think because it is too wide in scope. "wares" is a general term which may include rare wild flowers, and to what proportion we do not know. Also the conclusion is that the magazine's policy will reduce demand, which in turn will reduce supply, hence decreasing the plundering of native plant populations. And "reduce in demand" is untouched by option B.

Looking at the OA: E, I am not totally convinced. E has far reaching and probable consequences, hence should be a weak weakening option. Though by POE it may be the only option left.

tuanquang269 · Answer

Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly among people new to gardening. Accordingly, we will no longer publish articles or accept advertisements praising the beauty of rare wildflowers. Most such plants sold to gardeners have been difficult to propagate under cultivation, so plant sellers often collect them in the wild. Our new policy is part of our efforts to half this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the wisdom of the magazine's new policy as a way of pursuing the intended effect?

A. The purchasers who bought wild plants once time and killed it will not buy wild plants anymore. This sentence prove that the more people buy wild plant, the more plants are killed. It is enought that one person kills one plant 
B. Plant sellers who sell rare wildflowers have no reasonably inexpensive alternate way to offer their wares directly to new gardens. => Irrelevant one, quite strengthen. 
C. The demand for rare wildflowers rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers. => Clearly strengthen by increasing the demand of wild plants
D. The propagation of rare wildflowers often depends on the plant's interaction with other organisms in their environment such as plants that create suitable soil conditions or insects and birds that disperse seeds. => If native plants were taken from the forests, they will not adapt to the new conditions to reproduce new plants => native plant population decrease, strengthen one

E is too clear, I will not explain any more.

SVaidyaraman · Answer

Wisdom or the argument of the magazine:  Stopping the praise of rare wild flowers in the magazine  will reduce the plundering of such plants from the wild as they are propagated only in the wild.

The underlined part is the premise and the rest is the conclusion. To weaken this argument you can either give a reason why the plundering will not reduce or give a reason why the plants need not be propagated only in the wild.

We will use our technique of negating the conclusion. You can negate it in 2 ways based on the above reasoning

1. Plundering will not reduce
2. The plants need not be cultivated only in the wild

Which choice offers the best explanation for one of the above two negated conclusion? We see it is choice E as it explains how (2) can be done

souvik101990 · Answer

Argument is :

magazine Wont publish article on wildflower -----> This act will save wildflowers

What if publishing articles on wildflowers helps in saving them ? If this is true, argument is weakened. ( As intended effect can be achieved without the stated action )

This is exactly what E is saying.

reto · Answer

Tough one!

I tried to take notes, to bring down the passage in a logical flow:

Premise (Editor)  : Articles in Magazines spur sales of plants they describe.
  Premise  : Wildflowers have been difficult to propagate under cultivation, so plant sellers often collect them in the wild

Conclusion  : No longer publish articles or ads of rare wildflowers, in order to halt plundering of native plant populations

Which AC casts the moust doubt about the plan of the magazine to halt the plundering?

A. When people new to gardening buy plants, they often fail to take adequate care of the plants that they buy and become discouraged from buying those varieties again.
Does not cast doubt, is out of scope. There can be 1000 people new to gardening every year and the plundering continues  IF  articles/ads are published.

B. Plant sellers who sell rare wildflowers have no reasonably inexpensive alternate way to offer their wares directly to new gardens.
Does not cast doubt because if there are no ads/articles, it can be inferred that there will be no buyers.

C. The demand for rare wildflowers rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers. 
Out of scope. If it rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected, there is still the option that it sometimes exceeds the demand. So the plan is still justified right?

D. The propagation of rare wildflowers often depends on the plant's interaction with other organisms in their environment such as plants that create suitable soil conditions or insects and birds that disperse seeds.
Clearly out of scope. Does not touch any of the premises or conclusion of the passage. We have no indication of demand/offer.

E. Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.
Finally, if revenues from sales of plants collected can be used to discover low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries... then this casts the most doubt about the argument because if true, the sale of collected plant should even be fostered! Hence, the Editor should continue with articles and ads of such plants.

BillyZ · Answer

How to Attack a Causal Conclusion

Whenever you identify a causal relationship in the conclusion of a GMAT problem, immediately prepare to either weaken or strengthen the argument. Attacking a cause and effect relationship in Weaken questions almost always consists of performing one of the following tasks:

A. Find an alternate cause for the stated effect

Because the author believes there is only one cause, identifying another cause weakens the conclusion.

B. Show that even when the cause occurs, the effect does not occur

This type of answer often appears in the form of a counterexample. Because the author believes that the cause always produces the effect, any scenario where the cause occurs and the effect does not weaken the conclusion.

C. Show that although the effect occurs, the cause did not occur

This type of answer often appears in the form of a counterexample. Because the author believes that the effect is always produced by the same cause, any scenario where the effect occurs and the cause does not weaken the conclusion.

D. Show that the stated relationship is reversed

Because the author believes that the cause and effect relationship is correctly stated, showing that the relationship is backwards (the claimed effect is actually the cause of the claimed cause) undermines the conclusion.

E. Show that a statistical problem exists with the data used to make the causal statement

If the data used to make a causal statement are in error, then the validity of the causal claim is in question.

Conclusion : Our new policy is part of our efforts  to half this yearly plundering of our native plant populations .

A. Find an alternate cause for the stated effect

Because the author believes there is only one cause, identifying another cause weakens the conclusion.

Answer  : (E) Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the  discovery of new low-cost techniques  enabling  rare wildflowers  to be  readily propagated in nurseries .

KarishmaB · Answer

Wildflowers don't propagate under cultivation and hence are plundered from wild.
Articles in Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly among people new to gardening.

Aim - To halve the plundering of native plant populations
Plan - Don't print articles on wildflower
(Since it is a new plan, the assumption is that till now the magazine was printing articles on wildflowers. Hence not printing articles may reduce the demand)

One of the options needs to describe why the plan may not lead to the aim.

(A) When people new to gardening buy plants, they often fail to take adequate care of the plants that they buy and become discouraged from buying those varieties again.

If people new to gardening have bought the plants once, the plundering is done. Even if they do not buy again, there will be more "new" people who will buy. Hence curbing the publication of articles may reduce the number of "new people" who buy wildflowers. It doesn't explain why the plan MAY NOT lead to the aim. Hence not the answer.

(B) Plant sellers who sell rare wildflowers have no reasonably inexpensive alternate way to offer their wares directly to new gardens.

If anything, it strengthens the plan. The sellers do not have any other inexpensive way to reach out to people new to gardening. So if the articles are stopped, possibly the demand of wildflowers will reduce and hence the aim will be fulfilled.

(C) The demand for rare wildflowers rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers.

We want to REDUCE the demand so that plundering from the wild REDUCES from current numbers. Information in (C) is irrelevant to our plan.

(D) The propagation of rare wildflowers often depends on the plant's interaction with other organisms in their environment such as plants that create suitable soil conditions or insects and birds that disperse seeds.

The conditions for propagation are irrelevant. They propagate in the wild and we want to reduce the plundering there. 
 adkikani  - Whether they survive in the gardens of people who are new to gardening is immaterial. If the new people have bought the plants once, plundering has happened. They may not buy the plants again but there will be other new people. This option is similar to option (A) as per your logic. If (A) is wrong, then this is wrong too.

(E) Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.
Revenues from sales of wild plants are supporting the discovery of tech to grow wildflowers in nurseries. If the revenues reduce, the technology may not get developed and the plundering may continue. The current plundering may actually lead to reduced plundering in the future so the plan of not printing articles may actually work against the aim.

Answer (E)

abhola · Answer

Hi VeritasKarishma Although I understand from your analysis why wrong answers are wrong, I seem not to connect dots as to why right answer is right. I understand why the wrong answers are wrong. And this is why this question is tough. Right answer is too hard to digest. Please find my reasoning on why E may not have any effect on the plan. Premises - Publish the articles - > Increase in demand/sale. Increase in demand - > hunting of wild plants. Thus a cause and effect is given to us in the premises. Conclusion - Lets abandon the publishing of articles, so that we can reduce the hunting of wild plants by 50%. To me, this conclusion is devoid of any gaps and totally flows from the premises provided. As in the editor rightly assumes that absence of cause (publishing of articles) will lead to absence of the effect. In terms of casual reasoning, this is a very valid inference. So let us look at option E now. Option E says, Funding from the sales of such plants may actually help save the wild plants in future. This suggests it is okay to keep publishing the articles. In this sense it makes editor to reconsider their claim. But - Even if the funding reduces, how does it matter? Because we already know if we stop publishing the articles, the demand will come down and plant sellers may not really need to go hunting these plants. So the point I want to raise is that - Whatever the case may be with option E, the conclusion still stays intact. I know its an official question and there is very little to debate about the correctness of it, I still would like to hear from you about what you think of my reasoning and if its wrong, where do I go wrong. Thank you

Posted from my mobile device

KarishmaB · Answer

There is a gap in the argument's reasoning. It is not perfect.

Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly  among people new  to gardening.
Magazine articles spur sales among new people.

Aim: Halt this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.

Not printing articles will not spur sales among new people. But what about the regulars whose demand will likely continue?

Now see what happens with (E).
(E) Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.

If we are able to propagate wildflowers in nurseries, all wild plundering will go away. This better serves the aim of halting the plundering. Hence, not printing articles may actually work against the aim.

Vatsal7794 · Answer

Hi Experts

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   EducationAisle   ChrisLele   mikemcgarry   AjiteshArun   egmat   sayantanc2k   RonPurewal   DmitryFarber   MagooshExpert   avigutman   EMPOWERgmatVerbal   MartyTargetTestPrep   ExpertsGlobal5   IanStewart 
other experts

How option E can be the answer?
Like magazine will stop advertising and then revenue will decrease i got this point. But if there is no advertisement and no people will buy, then why plundering will continue. It's likely that sellers will stop plundering.

Is it like some people will still buy even if there is no advertisement?
Can you please let me know where am I going wrong?

According to me the answer should be D because I thought it's not the plundering that is responsible for the decrease in native plant populations but it's the environment that is responsible.

What's the meaning of propagate in the argument?

Can you please clear both of my doubts?

avigutman · Answer

Vatsal7794  yes, it's likely that plundering would decrease if the magazine stops praising the beauty of rare wildflowers, but we have no reason to think that the plundering would  halt  completely.

Our job is to cast the most doubt on the wisdom of the magazine's new policy as a way of pursuing  the intended effect .
What's the intended effect?  To halt this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.

Propagate: breed specimens of (a plant or animal) by natural processes from the parent stock.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

I totally agree with you regarding choice (E), and I find this question to be one of the few released official CR questions that doesn't work.

In fact, we could even make the case that choice (A) is the correct answer, since choice (A) indicates that, if new gardeners read about wildflowers in the magazine, they''ll likely buy them, have bad experiences with them, and never buy them again.

On the other hand, as Avi Gutman has said, choice (D) doesn't work. After all, the fact that the propagation of plants depends on certain environmental factors doesn't mean that ceasing to discuss wildflowers in the magazine won't help to reduce plundering of those plants.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Regarding E, we don't want to fall into the trap of "what you see is all there is." We know that some people are enticed to buy plants after seeing ads in Gardening Magazine, and that the magazine is taking steps to cut down on certain purchases. However, we have no reason to assume that this magazine is the only way anyone would ever get the idea to buy wildflowers. We have no idea what percent of wildflower sales are driven by ads in this magazine, and we don't need to find out. We simply have to determine whether their plan will actually help them to meet their stated goal. E gives us reason to think that advertising wildflower sales now could actually be part of the solution, although like most strengthen/weaken answers, it is not definitive. It reminds me of the debate about zoos--do they do more harm than good? We don't have to make a final judgment on the issue to determine that one answer provides support for the opposing side.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot:

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

This post was generated automatically.

Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants

Prep Toolkit

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards