People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unle

Question

People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unless they have leisure, and people have leisure when resources are plentiful, not when resources are scarce. Although some anthropologists claim that agriculture, the cultivation of crops, actually began under conditions of drought and hunger, the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes.

The argument is structured to lead to the conclusion that

(A) whenever a society has plentiful resources, some members of that society devote themselves to the study of natural processes

(B) plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and grew

(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources

(D) early agricultural societies knew more about the natural sciences than did early nonagricultural societies

(E) early societies could have discovered by accident how the plants they cultivated reproduced and grew

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unless they have leisure, and people have leisure when resources are plentiful, not when resources are scarce. Although some anthropologists claim that agriculture, the cultivation of crops, actually began under conditions of drought and hunger, the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes.

Very important to know the FLOW of reasoning, otherwise you WILL mark A..
The logic is 
 If NOT A, then NOT B 
resources NOT plentiful>>>>people do NOT have leisure.......
people do NOT have leisure>>>>People CANNOT devote themselves to the study of natural processes

The argument is structured to lead to the conclusion that

(A) whenever a society has plentiful resources, some members of that society devote themselves to the study of natural processes
 No, that is not what the conclusion can be..
WHY??
It is too extreme. The PARA nowhere suggests that plentiful resources will SURELY lead to study of natural resources...

(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources.
 Now, their is a flow of reasoning that is given above..
Here we end the argument with ..
 These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes .
And we know Opposite of  If NOT A, then NOT B  is If B, then A
active study of natural processes >>>people do have leisure>>>>resources were plentiful 
This is what C says

So, the answer surely has to be C..

AdiBatman · Answer

As per my understanding the extract is about the reasons why natural processes have been studied by the human societies in the past. It advocates that it was the abundancy of the resources that contributes/attracts people to study the natural processes. It sort of says, we study or focus do something extra when there's no sufferings or challenges in our day-to-day life. Example of Agriculture justifies that we discovered how the plants are grown and then used the tactics in the hour of need. That actually proved useful then.
 Among all the given answers, option A fits my understanding. Option A is answer as per me.

h31337u · Answer

The answer is A and  this is a "infer" type question and I need to find an answer with Must Be True.

(A) whenever a society has plentiful resources, some members of that society devote themselves to the study of natural processes
--> Based on the fact that people can devote to the study when they have leisure. Having leisure means plentiful resources in place. 
--> Must be true

(B) plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and grew
--> did not mention anything about theoretical knowledge.

(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources
--> agriculture can begin when people can devote and people can devote when they have leisure. having leisure means having plentiful resources but having plentiful resources does not always mean having leisure. therefore, we can't be 100% certain that this is true.

(D) early agricultural societies knew more about the natural sciences than did early nonagricultural societies
--> no comparison between agricultural and non-agricultural societies.

(E) early societies could have discovered by accident how the plants they cultivated reproduced and grew
--> does not mention

gvvsnraju@12 · Answer

Ans : C

Type of The question:- Conclusion/Inference.

People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes  unless  they have leisure, and people have leisure when resources are plentiful, not when resources are scarce.

Meaning of the Sentence : We can infer that People who study leisure must have plentiful resources.

Although some anthropologists claim that agriculture, the cultivation of crops, actually began under conditions of drought and hunger, the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. 
These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes.

Meaning of the Sentence : the early societies that domesticated plants studied the study of natural process.

Possible Conclusion from above two inferences : The early societies  must  had plentiful resources.

Answer Choice Analysis :-

(A) whenever a society has plentiful resources, some members of that society devote themselves to the study of natural processes;

We cant say this for sure to happen as it entirely changes the meaning.

Must = bare min; Must and only are not same.
 
(B) plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and grew

Could be trued. Stimulus of the argument revolves around the reasoning that leisure and study of natural resources.

(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources

This is exactly what we anticipated.

(D) early agricultural societies knew more about the natural sciences than did early non agricultural societies.

New info. cant be infered.

(E) early societies could have discovered by accident how the plants they cultivated reproduced and grew
by accident = cant be infered.

nikitathegreat · Answer

GMATNinja  &  KarishmaB  - Can you please explain this argument along with answer choices. 
We know that agriculture began at the time of drought however, domesticating plants required resources been plentiful for leisure to happen and then to study the natural process.
How is option choice C correct then since it talks about agriculture?
(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources
 
Why is ans choice B incorrect ? (B) plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and grew 
I thought study of natural process = lacking theoretical knowledge and this was required for domesticating plants

Thanks

KarishmaB · Answer

Premises:  
Leisure is necessary for studying natural processes.
If and only if resources are plenty, do people have leisure. 
Some say agriculture began under conditions of drought and hunger (so that time was not leisure time)
But early societies that domesticated plants must have actively studied natural processes.

Hence it seems that the author is trying to say that it is likely that agriculture began under better conditions, not under drought and hunger conditions. That a society with plentiful resources had the time to study natural processes and hence started agriculture. Hence option (C) is the conclusion of the argument.

(C) agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources

(B) plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and grew

We can say that this is given to us. It is not the conclusion the author is leading towards. The argument tells us that the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. So plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking this knowledge.

Also, think about it this way - if this were the author's conclusion, why did the author give all that extra content about leisure, resources plentiful, agriculture began under drought and hunger etc. All that ha son significance then.

Answer (C)

VerbalBot · Answer

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People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unle

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