It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing t

Question

It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever it is available.  But the distance that food travels turns out to be only a small part of its environmental impact. Certain foods can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others. So, sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food.

BOLDFACE plays which one of the following roles in the argument?

A. It is a principle upon which the reasoning in the argument is based.

B. It is a general principle that is used to support a particular activity that falls under it.

C. It is a general principle that is used to reject a particular activity that is not compatible with it.

D. It is a view that is rejected by the argument.

E. It is the conclusion of the argument.

nightblade354 · Accepted Answer

It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever it is available . But the distance that food travels turns out to be only a small part of its environmental impact. Certain foods can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others. So, sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food.

P: But the distance that food travels turns out to be only a small part of its environmental impact
P: Certain foods can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others 
C: Sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food

Observing the above, our conclusion doesn't agree with the initial statement, which is our boldface. Why? Because there are reasons why buying local isn't the most environmentally sustainable way to buy food. The first is that there is less impact if you buy elsewhere. Second, because distance isn't the biggest factor. Now, remember our conclusion: The MOST environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy local when you can. But as we have just learned, this isn't the case: Maybe it takes a huge toll on the environment to grow corn in a certain area; but according to our initial statement: if you buy local, you are doing less harm. Well, that would go out the window based on this example, which is supported by the argument. As a result, we reject the argument and this is what we are looking for! 
 
BOLDFACE plays which one of the following roles in the argument?

A. It is a principle upon which the reasoning in the argument is based. --  Nope. Our argument runs counter to this, so it cannot be a principle that we rely on. Out.

B. It is a general principle that is used to support a particular activity that falls under it. --  Similar to (A), it does not support our argument and thus cannot support the rejection of the argument.

C. It is a general principle that is used to reject a particular activity that is not compatible with it. --  The bold face does not reject an activity. The bold face makes a general statement about what we should do; argument then rejects it. This sort of flips our conclusion with the boldface.

D. It is a view that is rejected by the argument. --  Perfect, as explained above.

E. It is the conclusion of the argument. --  Nope. Our conclusion is that we should not do this. As noted in the past, a conclusion needs to be supported by premises and in this case we are supporting an opposing argument, as there is not a single premise in support of the bold face.

souvonik2k · Answer

It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever it is available.  But the distance that food travels turns out to be only a small part of its environmental impact. Certain foods can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others. So, sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food.

BOLDFACE plays which one of the following roles in the argument?

A) It is a principle upon which the reasoning in the argument is based.

B) It is a general principle that is used to support a particular activity that falls under it.

C) It is a general principle that is used to reject a particular activity that is not compatible with it.

D) It is a view that is rejected by the argument.

E) It is the conclusion of the argument.

The bold statement is a belief that is rejected by the conclusion. The conclusion is 'sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food'.
Going through the answer choices, only D fits.
Answer D.

CJWORK · Answer

The BF is clearly the belief that the author tries to oppose. Hence, D.

sumit411 · Answer

Pay attention to the changing tone of the author.

After Bf, sentence starts with BUT - - - > something going against what is written before.

D fits the bill

Thank you = Kudos

Sreyoshi007 · Answer

The conclusion of the author is the last line of the argument - So, sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food. Now when we re-read the bold face, it mentions that it is advisable to buy food from local farmers whenever available and this is completely opposite of the above quoted sentence. Hence, the view is rejected by the author as we can clearly see in the conclusion. Option D is the clear answer. Please press Kudos if that helped

AshutoshB · Answer

It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever it is available.  But the distance that food travels turns out to be only a small part of its environmental impact. Certain foods can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others. So, sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food.

BOLDFACE plays which one of the following roles in the argument?

A) It is a principle upon which the reasoning in the argument is based.

B) It is a general principle that is used to support a particular activity that falls under it.

C) It is a general principle that is used to reject a particular activity that is not compatible with it.

D) It is a view that is rejected by the argument.

E) It is the conclusion of the argument.

The bold statement is a belief that is rejected by the conclusion. The conclusion is 'sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food'.
Going through the answer choices, only D fits.
Answer D.[/quote

+1 for explanation

gmat1393 · Answer

AshutoshB

Please stick to Verbal forum guide lines while posting questions.

Thanks!

Albs · Answer

I got A and I understand why it is D however I don't believe that the conclusion 'fully' rejects the argument because of the word 'sometimes'.

"sometimes it is environmentally preferable...."

ArupRS · Answer

nightblade354

I also have same doubt. Does the author completely reject the claim? I don't think it is an outright rejection. 
Please explain.

ArupRS · Answer

Thank you for the explanation. I understand the importance of  The MOST environmentally sensible thing  here now.

Hellscreamer07 · Answer

Hi experts, why is B incorrect?
It is a general principle that supports the activity of buying from the local farmers.viz the activity that falls under it.

GMATNinja · Answer

With boldface questions, it’s especially important that we understand the structure of the argument. So, let’s first consider the author’s logic:

The author concludes that “ sometimes it is environmentally preferable to buy food that is not produced locally, rather than buy locally produced food. ” 
 He/she supports this by noting that the distance food travels is only a small part of its environmental impact. 
 And some foods “can be produced with far less impact in some places rather than others.”

Everything that the author lays out in his/her argument is designed to counter the belief presented in the first sentence. In other words, the author first notes that “It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing to do is to buy food from local farmers whenever it is available.” Then, he/she goes on to explain why that belief is not necessarily true. The question asks that we identify the answer choice that describes the role played by the boldface “ in the argument .”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at (B):

In the abstract, the boldface statement is a principle used to support buying from local farmers. But the question doesn’t ask about what the boldface statement is. Rather, it asks about the role played by the boldface in the argument. In other words, what’s the purpose of the boldface  in the argument ? The problem with (B) is that the general principle described by the boldface is not used to support a particular activity in the argument. In fact, the argument does not necessarily seem to support buying from local farmers, and the purpose of the boldface in the argument is definitely not to support buying from local farmers. So, we can eliminate (B).

And here’s (D):

Again, why does the author include the boldface statement in his/her argument? The author wants to include a widely held belief that he/she disagrees with. As we stated earlier, the duration of the argument goes on to describe why the author disagrees with this view. So, the boldface is included as a view that is rejected by the argument, and (D) is correct.

I hope that helps!

ADisHere · Answer

If incase anyone is wonddering why C is incorrect

C. It is a general principle that is used to reject a particular activity that is not compatible with it. --   The bold face does not reject an activity. The bold face makes a general statement about what we should do; argument then rejects it. This sort of flips our conclusion with the boldface. 
 
See we need to know what ROLE is the boldface playing in the argument
What BF is saying --> belief that buy food from locals
the BF itself is not rejecting anything but line 2 and 3 are
the BF is just simply existing and telling us that this this thing is a so called principle/view

hence D is correct
Why? because this BF view which is just simply existing -> the argument is rejecting it as a whole by giving conclusions and premises that undermine this view!

I hope this helps ( because even I was stuck with this for a long time)

VerbalBot · Answer

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It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing t

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It is widely believed that the most environmentally sensible thing t

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