As part of a major overhaul of Froland's apple industry, outside produ

Question

As part of a major overhaul of Froland's apple industry, outside produce experts have proposed reducing the size of orchards that grow less popular kinds of apples and then setting up farmstands on the remaining acreage. In that way, orchards owners could sell many more kinds of products while continuing to grow a wide variety of apples. 
 
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the experts' proposal?

(A) Froland's apple orchards are best-known for the less popular kinds of apples that orchards in other regions rarely grow.

(B) Most of the visitors to Froland's apple orchards are tourists who would also purchase other regional items such as books and crafts.

(C) Few of Froland's apple orchards are located along major highways where farmstands would attract a large number of passersby.

(D) Farmstands are generally low-cost structures that take little time to design and build.

(E) Purchases of Froland-grown apples declined only slightly from 1975 to 1990 while purchases of less popular kinds of Froland-grown apples remained roughly constant.

GH - 09.24.13

avohden · Answer

Official Explanation

Answer: B  When looking to strengthen a plan or proposal, the most important assumption to confirm is often, "it will work." In this case, the plan is to set up farmstands to diversify, so that the acreage does not go solely to the production of apples. In order for that plan to work, there has to be some reason to believe that it will make money, that people will buy something other than apples.  Choice (B) provides the best answer,  confirming that there is a market in the region for things other than apples. Notice that (C) and (D) are decent answers. Both are important parts of the plan, but neither provide as much evidence that the plan will work as (B) will. In (C), we don't know that the passersby would buy anything, and in (D), we don't know that anything would be purchased, even if costs are low.

summer101 · Answer

I dont get this. A farmstand sells items produced in the farm not souvenirs . So a farmstand in this case will sell apples. How does B support that?
Also overhaul of apple industry by selling artifacts found weird

WillEconomistGMAT · Answer

Agreed that this is a strange argument. However, we have to "play it as it lies," to use a golf metaphor. Here, the conclusion explicitly discusses the sale of non-produce items:

So, we can only evaluate information that deals with the specific proposal, which is why  B  is the correct answer.

Side note: I suspect that sometimes test authors use absurd arguments/conclusions to bait and distract test-takers. So, beware!

karant · Answer

Bit confused........ Farmstand used for selling books and crafts.... sounds bit wierd

evdo · Answer

It is kind of weird argument. But I think the point in this argument is "many more kinds of products" which is basically saying that the farmers need to diversify the products they sell. I missed this important point.

lostnumber · Answer

This question is confusing, because Farmstands would typically sell items produced at the farm, not books and crafts. So the correct answer seems to fly in the face of common knowledge (never a good thing in a question).

However it is logically deducible that B is the correct answer, since none of the other answers are close to being right.

However it is logically deducible that B is the correct answer, since none of the other answers are close to being right.

aaba · Answer

"sell many more kinds of products while growing apples" is the key word => B is correct.
C just states "attract large number of passby"
D only tell the benefit of framestand.

VerbalBot · Answer

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As part of a major overhaul of Froland's apple industry, outside produ

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