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STAPLES

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by sogmat » Sun May 03, 2009 10:22 am
Agricultural societies cannot exist without staple crops. Several food plants, such as kola and okra, are known to have been domesticated in western Africa, but they are all supplemental, not staple, foods. All the recorded staple crops grown in western Africa were introduced from elsewhere, beginning, at some unknown date, with rice and yams.
Therefore, discovering when rice and yams were introduced into western Africa would establish the earliest date at which agricultural societies could have arisen there.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. People in western Africa did not develop staple crops that they stopped cultivating once rice and yams were introduced.
B. There are no plants native to western Africa that, if domesticated, could serve as staple food crops.
C. Rice and yams were grown as staple crops by the earliest agricultural societies outside of western Africa.
D. Kola and okra are better suited to growing conditions in western Africa than domesticated rice and yams are.
E. Kola and okra were domesticated in western Africa before rice and yams were introduced there.

OA A- PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR APPROACH
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by Jose Ferreira » Mon May 04, 2009 5:04 pm
Let's paraphrase the argument:
To be agricultural, you need staple crops. Staple crops are not native to Western Africa; they are all "imported", like Yams and Rice were. Getting the date of Y & R's introduction to Western Africa would show the first agricultural society.

A good assumption would be one that either:
1) Strengthens the belief that Yams and Rice were first
2) Eliminated a possibility there were other staple crops first.

Answer choice A does number 2.

If some Western African society cultivated Staple Crop X centuries before Yams and Rice were brought to Western Africa, it would weaken the conclusion that the dating of Yams and Rice will tell us how far back agro-societies go.
Last edited by Jose Ferreira on Tue May 05, 2009 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: STAPLES

by success1111 » Mon May 04, 2009 6:05 pm
sogmat wrote:Agricultural societies cannot exist without staple crops. Several food plants, such as kola and okra, are known to have been domesticated in western Africa, but they are all supplemental, not staple, foods. All the recorded staple crops grown in western Africa were introduced from elsewhere, beginning, at some unknown date, with rice and yams.
Therefore, discovering when rice and yams were introduced into western Africa would establish the earliest date at which agricultural societies could have arisen there.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. People in western Africa did not develop staple crops that they stopped cultivating once rice and yams were introduced.
B. There are no plants native to western Africa that, if domesticated, could serve as staple food crops.
C. Rice and yams were grown as staple crops by the earliest agricultural societies outside of western Africa.
D. Kola and okra are better suited to growing conditions in western Africa than domesticated rice and yams are.
E. Kola and okra were domesticated in western Africa before rice and yams were introduced there.

OA A- PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR APPROACH
This is a poorly written question.I will advise you not to bother yourself with CR questions from this textbook/author. Else you may be disappointed when you see the REAL GMAT CR.
Trust but verify.
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by nicolette » Sun May 15, 2016 1:58 pm
So I feel A is a better option
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