The climatic conditions needed for growing tea

Question

The climatic conditions needed for growing tea exist in only a few countries. India is one of the few major producers of tea and exports tea to many tea-drinking countries. This year, the production of tea in India has been significantly lower than that in the last ten years. With just enough to satisfy domestic demand for tea, India will not be able to export any sizeable amount of tea. As a result, the tea prices on the international market are expected to increase

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine to evaluate the argument?

A.Whether the international demand for coffee, a close substitute for tea has increased?

B.Whether the domestic demand for tea in many tea importing countries will decrease significantly?

C.Whether the production of tea in India was disturbed because of changes in climatic conditions in the country?

D.Whether the tea prices on the world market have often fluctuated in the past?

E.Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea?

ash124 · Answer

Understand the argument: 
 a few countries produce tea. 
India is one of them
because of the low production, India will not be able to export
Result: the tea prices on the international market are expected to increase

What about other tea-producing nations?

Question Tag: 
evaluate the argument

A.Whether the international demand for coffee, a close substitute for tea has increased?
 Out of scope

B.Whether the domestic demand for tea in many tea importing countries will decrease significantly?
 If demand decrease then prices will not increase
If demand remains constant then prices will increase

C.Whether the production of tea in India was disturbed because of changes in climatic conditions in the country?
 Not related to tea prices on the international market

D.Whether the tea prices on the world market have often fluctuated in the past?
 It doesn't explain how a decrease in tea production in India will affect tea prices on the international market

E.Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea?
 It is already given in the argument  "India is  one of the few major producers  of tea "

Answer B

ktzsikka · Answer

Here is the OE

Solution:
 Step 1 – Analyzing the stimulus and question stem 
The climatic conditions needed for growing tea exist in only a few countries. 
• The climate that favours tea growing is present only in some countries.
India is one of the few major producers of tea and exports tea to many tea drinking countries. 
• India is one of the few main producers of tea.
• It exports tea to several tea drinking countries
This year, the production of tea in India has been significantly lower than that in the last ten years. 
• In India the production of tea this year has been much less than the production in the last decade.
With just enough to satisfy domestic demand for tea, India will not be able to export any sizeable amount of tea. 
• India can just about meet the demand for tea in the country.
• So, it will not be able to export much tea to any country.
As a result, the tea prices on the international market are expected to increase.
• Conclusion: Therefore, the tea prices in the world market are going to rise.

Step 2 – Pre-thinking 
1. The author reasons that since India is a major producer of world tea, if its tea exports are reduced, the supply of the tea exports worldwide will be impacted such that the international demand for tea remaining the same, the prices will rise
2. Missing Link
a. The passage does not tell us that India is a major exporter of tea. We do not know India’s contribution to the world tea exports. What if Indian tea exports form only a small proportion of world tea exports? In that case, even if the export of Indian tea is highly reduced in quantity, the world demand may be met by other exporters of tea which are major exporters. With there not being much shortage in supply, the world prices of tea may not rise.
 i. Assumption#1: India’s tea exports comprise a significant proportion of world tea exports.
 ii. Assumption#2: The rest of the world exporters of tea will not be able to sufficiently compensate for the reduction in tea exports from India.
b. What if there is a significant fall in the demand for tea in the tea importing countries for some reason? In that case, even with reduced supply from India, there may not arise sufficient shortage in tea supply to push up world prices.
 i. Assumption#3: The world demand for tea will not decrease significantly.
3. Evaluate Question:
a. Whether India’s tea exports comprise a significant proportion of world tea exports?
b. Whether the rest of the world exporters of tea will jointly be able to sufficiently compensate for the reduction in tea exports from India?
c. Whether the world demand for tea will decrease significantly?
________________________________________

A. Whether the international demand for coffee, a close substitute for tea has increased?
Option A Feedback:
The world demand for coffee can increase even without a decrease in the world demand for tea. This choice does not impact the conclusion and is out of scope.
 Incorrect Choice.

B. Whether the domestic demand for tea in many tea importing countries will decrease significantly?
Correct Option
Option B Feedback:
This choice is in line with pre-thinking evaluate question (c).
  Correct Choice.

C. Whether the production of tea in India was disturbed because of changes in climatic conditions in the country?
Option C Feedback:
The reasons behind reduced tea production in India are irrelevant to the conclusion.
 Incorrect Choice.

D. Whether the tea prices on the world market have often fluctuated in the past?
Option D Feedback:
Past fluctuations could have happened for multiple reasons and bear no impact on the current situation. This choice is also out of scope.
 Incorrect Choice.

E. Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea?
Your Selection
Option E Feedback:
These other producers may not be major exporters of tea. This choice merely distorts given information. We already know that there are other major producers of tea from the line “India is one of the few major producers of tea..”.
 Incorrect Choice.

pintukr · Answer

Hi  ktzsikka

Need to look at the 1st of valuate questions highlighted through your analysis :-

3. Evaluate Question:
a. Whether India’s tea exports comprise a significant proportion of world tea exports?
b. Whether the rest of the world exporters of tea will jointly be able to sufficiently compensate for the reduction in tea exports from India?
c. Whether the world demand for tea will decrease significantly?

E. Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea? 
This options highlights

whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea;

OR, in other words :

Whether India’s tea exports comprise a significant proportion of world tea exports

So, (E) is also equally useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument.

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
The climatic conditions needed for growing tea exist in only a few countries. - Fact 
India is one of the few major producers of tea and exports tea to many tea-drinking countries. - Fact 
This year, the production of tea in India has been significantly lower than that in the last ten years. - Fact 
With just enough to satisfy domestic demand for tea, India will not be able to export any sizeable amount of tea. - Intermediate conclusion. 
As a result, the tea prices on the international market are expected to increase - Conclusion

Option Elimination - Evaluate. To check the validity of the conclusion.

A.Whether the international demand for coffee, a close substitute for tea has increased? - Coffee is out of scope.

B.Whether the domestic demand for tea in many tea importing countries will decrease significantly? - If the demand decreases, then the prices may not increase.

C.Whether the production of tea in India was disturbed because of changes in climatic conditions in the country? - the reason for the lower production is out of scope.

D.Whether the tea prices on the world market have often fluctuated in the past? - Out of scope.

E.Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea? - This is a distortion. Say, the answer is Yes. Then, just by virtue of the other large producers, we can't conclude that they'll be able to compensate. They may or may not be. The option is smartly constructed and can be confused with the other large producers compensating for the gap. We already know form the argument that India is one of a few. So we already know that there are other large producers. Distortion.

RutujaDeshmukh19 · Answer

Let us break down the argument and understand it in a better way:

The climatic conditions needed for growing tea exist in only a few countries. India is one of the few major producers of tea and exports tea to many tea-drinking countries.  
 
 Climatic conditions impact the production of tea and hence there are a few countries like India who are major producers and exporters of tea to tea-drinking countries.

This year, the production of tea in India has been significantly lower than that in the last ten years. With just enough to satisfy domestic demand for tea, India will not be able to export any sizeable amount of tea.  
 
 The production of tea in India has been significantly lower as compared to last 10 years.  
 India has sufficient to satisfy the domestic demand but would lack to export any sizeable amount of tea.

As a result, the tea prices on the international market are expected to increase 
 
 Due to lack of production of tea in India, international prices of tea are expected to increase.  
We have to find an answer choice that if YES or NO would have an impact on the international tea prices due to lack of production of tea in India.

(A) Whether the international demand for coffee, a close substitute for tea has increased? - Incorrect  
 
 The argument mentions about the tea-drinking nations. 
 There is no mention of the tea-drinking nations who might substitute coffee for tea. 
 Hence, we cannot conclude where the prices will reduce or increase on the basis of this option choice.

(B) Whether the domestic demand for tea in many tea importing countries will decrease significantly? - Correct  
 
 If the domestic demand for tea decreases, it means that there is no need for India to export tea. This will not lead to increase in international prices of tea. 
 If the domestic demand for tea increases or remains the same, the prices of tea are sure to increase as India won't be able to satisfy the demand.

(C) Whether the production of tea in India was disturbed because of changes in climatic conditions in the country? - Incorrect  
 
 This option choice specifies the reason behind the decrease in production of tea. 
 The reason for low supply is not responsible for the effect on international prices of tea.

(D) Whether the tea prices on the world market have often fluctuated in the past? - Incorrect  
 
 The market conditions in the past and the present might be different.  
 There is no mention in the passage regarding market conditions, hence this answer choice is incorrect.

(E) Whether there are other producers of tea in the world producing sizeable quantities of tea? - Incorrect  
 
 If there are other producers of tea who satisfy the demand of the tea-drinking nations, there is a possibility that the price would not increase 
 But, the evaluation is regarding the increase in international prices of tea when there is a decrease in production of tea by India. 
 Also, the other nations might not be the major exporters of tea. No information regarding this is provided in the argument. 
 Hence, impact of other nations on international prices of tea is irrelevant.

The climatic conditions needed for growing tea

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The climatic conditions needed for growing tea

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