Critical Reasoning

The chanterelle, a type of wild mushroom, grows beneath host trees such as the Douglas fir, which provide it with necessary sugars. The underground filaments of chanterelles, which extract the sugars, in turn provide nutrients and water for their hosts. Because of this mutually beneficial relationship, harvesting the chanterelles growing beneath a Douglas fir seriously endangers the tree.
Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The number of wild mushrooms harvested has increased in recent years.
(B) Chanterelles grow not only beneath Douglas firs but also beneath other host trees.
(C) Many types of wild mushrooms are found only in forests and cannot easily be grown elsewhere.
(D) The harvesting of wild mushrooms stimulates future growth of those mushrooms.
(E) Young Douglas fir seedlings die without the nutrients and water provided by chanterelle filaments.

harvesting the chanterelles growing beneath a Douglas fir seriously endangers the tree

crak.gmat wrote:IMO D: As it says harvesting leads to further growth of these mushrooms, which in turn will benefit the Firs

LifetimesofSC wrote:Whats the point of posting a question without the official answer?

:twisted: I chose E

But serisouly, i'm about to write a book called Posting for Dummies. Please post the Answer.

LifetimesofSC wrote:

LifetimesofSC wrote:Whats the point of posting a question without the official answer?

:twisted: I chose E

But serisouly, i'm about to write a book called Posting for Dummies. Please post the Answer.

Reasoning-- last sentence reads:
Because of this mutually beneficial relationship, harvesting the chanterelles growing beneath a Douglas fir seriously endangers the tree.

Weakening that statement would mean the Douglas fir relies on the shroom.

Again please post the answer. this shroom talk got me trippin

schumi_gmat wrote:Answer - E

The conclusion says that growth mushroom below the Fir tree is harming the tree.

option E says, that young tree die without the nutrients supplied by mushrooms, which mean mushrooms are not endangering the tree and helping it. hence answer is E

D speaks about "harvesting leads to further growth of these mushrooms" this means that it will be even more beneficial for the tree and which endangers the tree as per the conclusion and hence strenghtens rather than weakens