Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons

Question

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees. Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches. However, individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

(A) Fresh, locally grown apricots sell at a much higher price than do fresh, locally grown peaches.
(B) Apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees.
(C) It costs as much to water and fertilize peach trees as it does to water and fertilize apricot trees.
(D) The market for fresh, locally grown apricots has grown in recent years as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.
(E) Peach production has decreased dramatically over the last several years.

Source: LSAT

broall · Answer

(A) Fresh, locally grown apricots sell at a much higher price than do fresh, locally grown peaches.
 Correct. This choice indicates that although individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, the farmers could still earn more profits from apricot trees than from peach trees. Thus, planting apricot trees makes more sense, not planting peach trees

(B) Apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees.
 This choice strengthens the argument

(C) It costs as much to water and fertilize peach trees as it does to water and fertilize apricot trees.
 If this choice is true, then peach trees still provide more benefits than do apricot trees. This choice strengthens the argument

(D) The market for fresh, locally grown apricots has grown in recent years as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.
 The grown market for fresh, locally grown apricots could make some influence on the profits. However, those effects are on the long term, and we can't know whether the farmers could earn more profit from apricot trees than from peach trees.

(E) Peach production has decreased dramatically over the last several years.
 Thoe prodection has decreased dramatically so the supply will be not enough to satisfy the demand. Thus, the sell price will increase so the farmers will earn more profits. This choice strengthens the argument.

nightblade354 · Answer

Bumping for further discussion.

vector01 · Answer

I believe A is the answer.

A ---> weakens the argument since if apricots sell more than peaches, then it is possible that the profit from selling apricots may be more than peaches.
B ---> supports the argument since peach trees can produce peaches for a longer time than apricot trees, making peach trees more attractive.
C ---> neutral to both peach trees and apricot trees.
D ---> the passage has indicated that currently both peaches and apricots are equally popular. The growth rates in previous years is not relevant here.
E ---> supports the argument for peach trees since there is lesser supplies of peach fruits to compete against.

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees. Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches. However, individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

(A) Fresh, locally grown apricots sell at a much higher price than do fresh, locally grown peaches.
(B) Apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees.
(C) It costs as much to water and fertilize peach trees as it does to water and fertilize apricot trees.
(D) The market for fresh, locally grown apricots has grown in recent years as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.
(E) Peach production has decreased dramatically over the last several years.

unraveled · Answer

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees. Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches. However, individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

(A) Fresh, locally grown  apricots sell at a much higher price than  do fresh, locally grown peaches.
(B) Apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees.
(C) It costs as much to water and fertilize peach trees as it does to water and fertilize apricot trees.
(D) The  market  for fresh, locally  grown apricots has grown in recent years  as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.
(E) Peach production has decreased dramatically over the last several years.

Only A and D stand a chance. 
D loses out for a subtle meaning that might require further assumptions to be made. Whether that market would keep growing in which case D stands much taller as it does right now against A. On the other hand, apricots seller at higher price than peaches in which case the conclusion(blue text) does not remain as it is.

Answer A.

agrasan · Answer

Hi experts  GMATNinja   KarishmaB   MartyMurray   DmitryFarber

I have a hard time rejecting option D and accepting A as the correct answer. Could you please help?

My reasoning is: 
Conclusion = Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees.
Premise = Individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

(A) Fresh, locally grown apricots sell at a much higher price than do fresh, locally grown peaches.
We are given in the argument that cost price of apricots is much higher than that of peaches, now option A says that selling price of apricots is much higher than that of peaches...we know profits = revenue - costs...overall, we don't know whose profits is higher as we don't have much clarity on individual costs and selling price, hence, A doesn't seem of much help for us to affect our confidence in the conclusion.

(D) The market for fresh, locally grown apricots has grown in recent years as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.
This option clearly introduces a new benefit for apricots so its cultivation would help Johnson, thus, my confidence in the author's conclusion decreases.

Could you please help me to know where I am faltering? It's very important for me to figure out the root cause for error in thinking here to prevent similar reasoning mistakes.

MartyMurray · Answer

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees. Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches. However, individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

The conclusion of the argument is the following:

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons than planting apricot trees.

The support for the conclusion is the following:

Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches. However, individual peach trees cost much less to purchase and plant than do apricot trees, and peach trees also begin bearing fruit at a much younger age.

We see that the reasoning of the argument is basically that, since both apricots and peaches are popular and since peach trees are less expensive and bear fruit more quickly, it makes more sense to plant peach trees.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?

This is a Weaken question, and the correct answer will show that, even though the premise are true, the conclusion may not be.

(A) Fresh, locally grown apricots sell at a much higher price than do fresh, locally grown peaches.

This choice is interesting.

After all, although the argument has presented advantages of planting peach trees, the fact that apricots sell at a much higher price than peaches could offset those advantages.

In other words, even though peach trees cost less to purchase and plant and bear fruit at a younger age, the Johnsons still might be better off planting apricot trees if they can get much more for apricots than for peaches once the trees start bearing fruit.

Now, we don't know for sure whether the fact presented by this choice tips the balance in favor of apricots. It could still be that planting peach trees makes more sense than planting apricot trees for the reasons mentioned.

All the same, since what this choice says indicates that planting peach trees  may  not be better, this choice weakens the support for the conclusion.

Keep.

(B) Apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees.

This choice strengthens, rather than weakens, the case for the conclusion.

After all, if apricot trees tend to stop being productive at a younger age than do peach trees, then there's another advantage to planting peach trees: they're productive for a longer time than apricot trees are.

Eliminate.

(C) It costs as much to water and fertilize peach trees as it does to water and fertilize apricot trees.

In a way, this choice is a backhanded strengthener.

The facts stated by the passage indicate that there are advantages to planting peach trees rather than apricot trees.

Now this choice indicates that the two types of trees are similar in how much it costs to water and fertilize them.

So, in a way, this choice serves to eliminate a potential issue with peach trees by confirming that they don't cost more to water and fertilize.

Eliminate.

(D) The market for fresh, locally grown apricots has grown in recent years as awareness of the health benefits of eating fresh fruit has increased.

This choice is tricky to eliminate since it could seem to mean that planting apricot trees makes more sense than planting peach trees.

Here's the thing though.

The passage states as fact that, "Although fresh, locally grown apricots are very popular in this area, the same is true of peaches."

So, we already know that types of fruit are "very popular," meaning that this choice doesn't mean that apricots are more popular than peaches.

Rather, all this choice means is that the popularity of apricots has increased "in recent years."

So, it could be that apricots were not "very popular" before recent years or that both peaches and apricots have become more popular recently.

In any case, this choice compares the popularity of apricots now with the popularity of apricots in the past rather than the popularity of apricots with that of peaches.

So, it doesn't indicate that apricots are more popular than peaches and thus doesn't weaken the case for planting peach trees.

Eliminate.

(E) Peach production has decreased dramatically over the last several years.

If anything, this choice strengthens, rather than weakens, the case for the conclusion.

After all, if peach production has decreased dramatically, then peaches may be in short supply, a fact that could mean that, in selling peaches, the Johnsons will be in a good position.

Of course, we don't really know that peaches are in short supply. Still, the fact that peach production has decreased is certainly not a reason not to plant peach trees.

Eliminate.

Correct answer:   A

Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons

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Planting peach trees on their farm makes more sense for the Johnsons

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