Tricky one. Winter v.s. Spring wheat.

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Tricky one. Winter v.s. Spring wheat.

by amysky_0205 » Thu Dec 20, 2012 7:13 am
Davison River farmers are currently deciding between planting winter wheat this fall or spring wheat next spring. Winter wheat and spring wheat are usually about equally profitable. Because of new government restrictions on the use of Davison River water for irrigation, per acre yields for winter wheat, though not for spring wheat, would be much lower than average. Therefore, planting spring wheat will be more profitable than planting winter wheat, since___________.

A.the smaller-than-average size of a winter wheat harvest this year would not be compensated for by higher winter wheat prices
B.new crops of spring wheat must be planted earlier than the time at which standing crops of winter wheat are ready to be harvested
C.the spring wheat that farmers in the Davison River region plant is well adapted to the soil of the region
D.spring wheat has uses that are different from those of winter wheat
E.planting spring wheat is more profitable than planting certain other crops, such as rye

OA: A

Can someone explain~~ I only narrowed down the answer to A, B and E.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Fri Dec 21, 2012 3:16 am
Answer A is correct. It is logical that smaller harvest will cause the increase in the prices. However, if this difference in price is not enough to make the winter yield as profitable as the spring one, it is clearly better to plant spring wheat and not worry about restrictions concerning water supplies.
B - incorrect, we don't care whether it is possible to plant each of wheat types one after another, we are only considering which one of the two we should choose
E - out of scope, rye is not mentioned in the argument so this statement is not a good continuation of the argument
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by ritind » Sat Dec 22, 2012 3:44 am
@Amysky: I have learnt one thing while solving such kind of questions which is to eliminate the option where some extra info is given apart from the passage.
There's nothing mentioned about rye or other crops...they are primarily discussing abt spring wheat and winter wheat. so u cud have easily striked of E and u would be left with a 50% probability of getting the question right