Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production

Question

Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production of oil and natural gas, right now might be the worst. Libya's descent into chaos is fueling a rapid rise in oil prices, and unrest in other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa has led some analysits to predict unprecedented oil-price spikes may be looming.

If the statements above are true, which of the following inference can be most properly drawn?

A) The oil prices at present are the highest of what they might have been in the last few decades.

B) Libya is a major oil producing country.

C) If US allows oil domestic oil production, it may be able to avoid any further price increase.

D) The oil price increases that are predicted by analysts may be larger than those in the recent past.

E) Unrest in oil producing countries in Middle East has impacted overall oil production.

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Interesting question!

ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:

Factor #1: Libya's descent into chaos is fueling a rapid rise in oil prices.
Factor #2: unrest in other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa 
 Sub conclusion:  unprecedented oil-price spikes may be looming.
 Main conclusion:  Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production of oil and natural gas, right now might be the worst.

KEY WORD:  unprecedented  oil-price spikes.
 
 ANALYZE EACH OPTION:

If the statements above are true, which of the following inference can be  most properly  drawn?

A) The oil prices at present are the highest of what they might have been in the last few decades.
 Wrong.  Nothing about “oil prices at present are the highest”. Probably, the oil prices at present are high, but we do not have enough info to conclude they are the highest.

B) Libya is a major oil producing country.
 Wrong.   SHELL GAME.  
 - “oil producing” differs from “oil exporting” . Libya may be a major oil exporting country. It may export a big amount of “rude” oil. So its chaos will have a big impact on oil prices. But, the premises do not say “Libya is a major  producing  country”.

C) If US allows oil domestic oil production, it may be able to avoid any further price increase.
 Wrong.   SHELL GAME.  It’s wrong because:
- If US allows oil domestic production, it may be able to avoid further price increase in the U.S only. But, C say US can avoid price increase in general. C means  U.S only or worldwide ?
- C say the US can avoid   any   further price increase. KEY WORD is “any”. Is it true that the US can avoid  any  further price increase? The US can avoid only price increase to some extent, not any further price increase.

D) The oil price increases that are predicted by analysts may be larger than those in the recent past.
  Correct.   The stimulus says: “unprecedented oil-price spikes”. “ unprecedented” means “have never happened before ”. D is the most properly inference.

E) Unrest in oil producing countries in Middle East has impacted overall oil production.
 Wrong.  It’s true that unrest in oil producing countries in ME will impact overall oil production. But the unrest did impact or will impact  (the time of the impact) ? We don’t know. Hence, E is wrong.

Hope it helps.

commdiver · Answer

The first sentence of the question stem states that it is a bad time for the US to discourage domestic oil production. The second sentence of the question stem states that oil prices are about to rise because of unrest in Libya. One can assume that if the US cuts domestic oil product, therefore increasing their reliance on imported oil, prices will soar because of the unrest in Libya. Therefore, C is correct.

I hope that helps

joshnsit · Answer

C is not correct as per OE I have. The official explanation from the source against C is "What the passage states is that this is a bad time for US to curb domestic production. What we can infer is that if US allows domestic production then the price increase may not be that much or not at all. But, we can not conclusively say that there will not be any further price increase."

I am not able to make out much from this particular explanation that how is author saying that , so posted it for clarifications here.

joshnsit · Answer

Finally, I got the error in C. C) says that "If US allows oil domestic oil production, it may be able to avoid any further price increase." This subtle devilish :evil:

"any" is the problem in this option and ,if we go by this choice, this will mean that at any cost, the prices will not rise. But, this can not be proven based on this argument. The prices may remain flat or even dip in the future. The correct option D is a corroboration of what the last sentence of this argument says: D) The oil price increases that are predicted by analysts may be larger than those in the recent past.

joshnsit · Answer

Hi All, D is the correct option here. I was confused with Option C, but then found that "any" in option C makes it a wrong choice. This subtle devilish :evil:

"any" is the problem in this option and ,if we go by this choice, this will mean that at any cost, the prices will not rise. But, this can not be proven based on this argument. The prices may remain flat or even dip in the future. The official explanation from the source against C is "What the passage states is that this is a bad time for US to curb domestic production. What we can infer is that if US allows domestic production then the price increase may not be that much or not at all. But, we can not conclusively say that there will not be any further price increase." When the last statement of this argument says that oil spikes may be looming means an expected increase in oil price in US as suggested in D. So D is the answer.

mohnish104 · Answer

The key word here is 'unprecedented'. If u read this word the entire passage becomes a piece of cake.

cledgard · Answer

I agree with   D   because it says may be, so it does not really say anything – it brings up the possibility that may be not.

However, I disagree with you in   B  . You can infer that  Libya is an oil-producing country

in  “ other ”  oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa

I guess that when the premise uses the term “ other ”, it refers to  other than Libya , thus implying that  Libya is an oil-producing country  in the Middle East and North Africa.

The problem with   B   is that we  cannot infer  that is “ major ”.

leanhdung · Answer

Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production of oil and natural gas,  right now might be the worst . Libya's descent into chaos is fueling a rapid rise in oil prices, and unrest in other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa has led some analysts to predict  unprecedented oil-price spikes  may be looming.

If the statements above are true, which of the following inference can be most properly drawn?

A) The oil prices at present are the highest of what they might have been in the last few decades.

B) Libya is a major oil producing country.

C) If US allows oil domestic oil production, it may be able to avoid any further price increase.

D) The oil price increases that are predicted by analysts may be larger than those in the recent past.
--> correct as highlighted in green color.

E) Unrest in oil producing countries in Middle East has impacted overall oil production.

US09 · Answer

Really tough one! And a good one!

Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production of oil and natural gas, right now might be the worst. Libya's descent into chaos is fueling a rapid rise in oil prices, and unrest in other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa has led some analysits to predict unprecedented oil-price spikes may be looming.
If the statements above are true, which of the following inference can be most properly drawn?
A) The oil prices at present are the highest of what they might have been in the last few decades.  No information about past decades, keyword to focus here is "decade" hence incorrect. 
B) Libya is a major oil producing country. We do not know about "major" or not.  Out of scope and not within the boundaries of information provided. Incorrect. 
C) If US allows oil domestic oil production, it may be able to avoid any further price increase.  Aren't we talking about "encouraging" and "discouraging" and not "allowing" or "not allowing". Need to stay within the scope of the argument information. Hence this cannot be inferred and is incorrect. 
D) The oil price increases that are predicted by analysts may be larger than those in the recent past.  The last line uses the term "unprecedented" that clearly means that "price increase" might be the biggest than ever seen. Hence, it can be inferred that "price rise" might be larger than those in the recent past. Hence, correct. Keywords: unprecedented and price spike/increase. 
E) Unrest in oil producing countries in Middle East has impacted overall oil production.  It "may" but we do not know with certainty hence incorrect.

venky90 · Answer

I was stuck between C and D. Although I marked C, I can see why D is the correct answer.

D is because of the fact that the  entire passage talks about the upcoming price spike  as a result of unrest in the oil producing countries in the Middle-East and North Africa. Therefore, the  inference must also follow on the same topic  and talk about the price spike that is coming in the future.   Option D  talks about that whereas  Option C  talks about the effect on oil prices if the US allows domestic oil production.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Of all the times for the U.S. to be discouraging domestic production

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