1000 CR........

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1000 CR........

by smclean23 » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:53 pm
Potato cyst nematodes are a pest of potato crops. The nematodes can lie dormant for several years in their cysts, which are protective capsules, and do not emerge except in the presence of chemicals emitted by potato roots. A company that has identified the relevant chemicals is planning to market them to potato farmers to spread on their fields when no potatoes are planted; any nematodes that emerge will soon starve to death.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the claim that the company’s plan will be successful?
(A) Nematodes that have emerged from their cysts can be killed by ordinary pesticides.
(B) The only part of a potato plant that a nematode eats is the roots.
(C) Some bacteria commonly present in the roots of potatoes digest the chemicals that cause the nematodes to emerge from their cysts.
(D) Trials have shown that spreading even minute quantities of the chemicals on potato fields caused nine-tenths of the nematodes present to emerge from their cysts.
(E) The chemicals that cause the nematodes to emerge from their cysts are not emitted all the time the potato plant is growing.




OA is D....don't understand...
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by bleacherseat » Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:53 pm
Its D

Farmers will spread the chemical on the field and Nems will die of starvation.


A - Irrelevant. No pesticide use anywhere is suggested.

B - Doesn't matter what Nems eat. The arg is about Nems coming out and starving

C - Weakens one of the premises.


D - If minute quantities of chemicals cause nems to come out then it's a highly effective chemical and since there will no potatoe to eat nems will likely die.

E - Irrelevant. The arg is abot chemical causing nems to come out and starve.

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Re: 1000 CR........

by codesnooker » Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:24 pm
smclean23 wrote:Potato cyst nematodes are a pest of potato crops. The nematodes can lie dormant for several years in their cysts, which are protective capsules, and do not emerge except in the presence of chemicals emitted by potato roots. A company that has identified the relevant chemicals is planning to market them to potato farmers to spread on their fields when no potatoes are planted; any nematodes that emerge will soon starve to death.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the claim that the company’s plan will be successful?
(A) Nematodes that have emerged from their cysts can be killed by ordinary pesticides.
(B) The only part of a potato plant that a nematode eats is the roots.
(C) Some bacteria commonly present in the roots of potatoes digest the chemicals that cause the nematodes to emerge from their cysts.
(D) Trials have shown that spreading even minute quantities of the chemicals on potato fields caused nine-tenths of the nematodes present to emerge from their cysts.
(E) The chemicals that cause the nematodes to emerge from their cysts are not emitted all the time the potato plant is growing.




OA is D....don't understand...
Actually (B) and (D) are very close contender but (D) wins over (B) because to kill Nematodes, they are required to come out from there protective shell. If we rely on (B) and only less percentage or even zero percent of Nematodes come out from their shell then company plan would not be successful.

The chances of zero or less percentage with option (B) is because in the argument itself author said that IF ANY Nematodes that emerge... So here ANY could means from zero to 100% percentage and this change the whole game of the argument.

Hence choose (D).

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by kris77 » Thu May 12, 2016 1:09 pm
I would go for D as well. It seems the best and safest among the rest.