Wildlife researchers recently presented a study that states that uncut

Question

Wildlife researchers recently presented a study that states that uncut house lawn grass resembles the natural habitat of snakes. Further, they suggested that snakes are attracted to uncut lawns if the grass grows more than 6 inches. For that reason, they concluded that people should mow their lawns before the grass grows taller than 6 inches.

Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?

A. Many species of snakes are known to thrive in deserts where there is hardly any grass for habitat.

B. It is an accepted fact that the moisture content in grass has a greater impact than the length of the grass in determining whether the grass resembles the natural habitat of snakes.

C. The researchers found that among lawns that resembled the natural habitat of snakes, the incidence of snake presence was no higher in the uncut lawns than among the cut lawns.

D. The researchers found that grass in lawns in rural areas grew twice as fast as grass in lawns in urban areas.

E. The researchers found that, after grass grows taller than 8 inches, the length of grass does not increase the risk of snakes.

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gauravbahl · Answer

Bunuel  what's the answer?

Bunuel · Answer

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Bunuel · Answer

Experts' Global Video Explanation:

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Suvankar8250 · Answer

I just have a small doubt about the answer, and probably that's the reason too why I didn't select 'C' as the answer!

The line of reasoning states that, uncut lawn ---> resembles the natural habitat of the snakes

But the correct option (C) states that, among lawns that resembled the natural habitat of snakes ----> no significant difference of the incidence of snakes between cut and uncut lawns! (probably due to other factors which makes the lawn the natural habitat, such as excessive moisture or presence of preys)

So, as far as my opinion is concerned, the answer might have regarded the condition as a given situation!

YuktiMaheshwari · Answer

Can some one please explain why not B?
As it says moisture is the reason instead of length of grass

Posted from my mobile device

Ankit__7182 · Answer

Hi Yukti, B. It is an accepted fact that the moisture content in grass has a greater impact than the length of the grass in determining whether the grass resembles the natural habitat of snakes. Option B is a word Trap. Be careful. It does not say that moisture is the reason instead of length of grass. It states that grass has a greater impact but does not rule out the impact of uncut grass length. Hope it is clear now

NehaKalani · Answer

I found this question really tricky, until I didn't. So, here's my attempt at explaining it to you all.

The question stem has the following premise:
1. Researchers found that the uncut home lawns resembled snakes' habitats
2. They further found that the uncut home lawns that have grass longer than 6 inches were more likely to attract snakes

The conclusion that the same researchers came about was:
Because the uncut lawns, especially those that have grass longer than 6" attracts snakes so badly, mow your lawns before it reaches the 6" state!

But there's a weakness here.
Sure, researchers found that uncut lawns resemble snake habitats, but they never said that cut lawns didn't.
Maybe there was another research for cut lawns somewhere. If cut lawns were equally likely to attract snakes as the uncut ones, then why should we even do the work of mowing our lawns?

And option B tells us exactly that. It tells us that among the lawns that represented snakes habitats, cut lawns were equally likely to attract snakes. That means that we didn't know about cut lawns at all in the passage, and the researchers made a conclusion based on half baked information about just the uncut lawns.

Hope this clarifies.

Wildlife researchers recently presented a study that states that uncut

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Wildlife researchers recently presented a study that states that uncut

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