Which of the following best completes the passage below? In

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Which of the following best completes the passage below?

In Beefola County, cattle ranchers argue that a new law designed to raise water quality should be abolished. The law requires ranchers to install fences that prevent livestock from entering waterways. Although they acknowledge that, without fences in place, the waterways would become more polluted in the short term, the ranchers argue that in the long term the increased pollution would be accompanied by higher profit margins. Higher profit margins would lead to more ranching entrepreneurs entering the market, which would in
turn mean more tax funding for a water treatment facility that purifies contaminated water. Therefore, eliminating the requirement that ranchers fence their land would ultimately lead to cleaner water supplies. This argument cannot be true unless .

(A) all ranchers are taxed at the same rate
(B) the fenced ranches are upstream from the proposed new water treatment facility
(C) pollution levels in the waterways under consideration are already high
(D) an increase in the number of ranches does not reduce the overall revenue from cattle ranching in Beefola County by creating a rise in the supply of beef that drives beef prices down
(E) Beefola County can guarantee that all tax revenue received from cattle ranchers will be used to pay for the water treatment facility
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:23 am
eitijan wrote:Which of the following best completes the passage below?

In Beefola County, cattle ranchers argue that a new law designed to raise water quality should be abolished. The law requires ranchers to install fences that prevent livestock from entering waterways. Although they acknowledge that, without fences in place, the waterways would become more polluted in the short term, the ranchers argue that in the long term the increased pollution would be accompanied by higher profit margins. Higher profit margins would lead to more ranching entrepreneurs entering the market, which would in
turn mean more tax funding for a water treatment facility that purifies contaminated water. Therefore, eliminating the requirement that ranchers fence their land would ultimately lead to cleaner water supplies. This argument cannot be true unless .

(A) all ranchers are taxed at the same rate
(B) the fenced ranches are upstream from the proposed new water treatment facility
(C) pollution levels in the waterways under consideration are already high
(D) an increase in the number of ranches does not reduce the overall revenue from cattle ranching in Beefola County by creating a rise in the supply of beef that drives beef prices down
(E) Beefola County can guarantee that all tax revenue received from cattle ranchers will be used to pay for the water treatment facility
Premise: Without fences in place, waterways will become more polluted.
Conclusion: If the fences are removed, the promise of higher profits will cause more ranchers to enter the market, resulting in more tax funding for a water treatment facility and -- ultimately -- cleaner water.

The question stem asks for the assumption: WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.
Apply the NEGATION TEST.
When the correct answer choice is negated, the conclusion will be invalidated.

D, negated:
An increase in the number of ranches REDUCES overall revenue from cattle ranching.
Here, more ranchers entering the market leads to a DECREASE in overall revenue from cattle ranching, invalidating the conclusion that there will be more tax funding for a water treatment facility.
Since the negation of D invalidates the conclusion, D is the correct assumption: WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.

The correct answer is D.
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