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Hey guys,

Nice job here - the official answer is, indeed, B. Choice B links the peat harvesting processes in Ireland to those "in this country" by demonstrating that the environments are similar, so it strengthens the argument (B would work as a good assumption answer, too, as we really need to link the Ireland premise more to the conclusion about this country).

Great point on the fact that the GMAT loves to use technical language to make you feel more confused than you need to be. Whenever I'm confused on technical language - and even as a native English speaker that happens to me a fair amount - I'll just replace it with variables like X and Y. That way, the argument is essentially:

Opponents of harvesting X say that it will alter the ecological balance. But in Ireland, they've harvested X for centuries without any problems. Therefore, we can safely proceed with harvesting X.

It doesn't really matter what "X" is (peat, corn, whatever) - the real issue is whether the logic makes sense.

I'm a big fan of "pay attention to the words you know to be important and don't worry about those you don't know at all". You know that words like "therefore", "however", etc. are always important, so look carefully for those, and fill in details with variables as needed.

Did you catch that excellent pronoun error in the first sentence?

"Opponents of peat harvesting in this country argue that it would alter the ecological balance of our peat-rich wetlands and that"

In this sentence, 'it' is actually referring to the country arguing, not the opponents.

Sentence corrections aside, 'B' is definitely the best answer as it clears the analogy assumption that the US is comparable to Ireland.