Evaluation--genetic modifiers.

[amysky_0205]

Scientists have made genetic modifications to cotton to increase its resistance to insect pests. According to farmers' report, the amount of insecticide needed per acre to control insect pests was only slightly lower for those who tried the modified seed than for those who did not. Therefore, since the modified seed costs more than ordinary seed without producing yields of higher market value, switching to the modified seed would be unlikely to benefit most cotton farmers economically.

Which of the following would it be most useful to know in order to evaluate the argument?

A. Whether farmers who tried the modified cotton seed had ever tried growing other crops from genetically modified seed.
B. Whether the insecticides typically used on ordinary cotton tend to be more expensive than insecticides typically used on other crops.
C. Whether for most farms who grow cotton it is their primary crop
D. Whether the farmers who have tried the modified speed planted as many acres of cotton, on average, as farmers using the ordinary seed did.
E. Whether most of the farmers who tried the modified seed did so because they had previously had to use exceptionally large quantities of insecticide.

OA: B

can someone explain this one?

I eliminated C and choose E instead....

thank u so much!

[ceilidh.erickson]

This should be listed in CR, not SC. If you move the post, I'll be happy to respond!

[amysky_0205]

This should be listed in CR, not SC. If you move the post, I'll be happy to respond!

Hi Ceilidh,
I believe i posted this one in the right place.
This is in the CR Forum, isn't it@@?

thank u

AMy

[ceilidh.erickson]

It is now, but yesterday it was showing up in SC. I have no idea if that's a computer glitch on my part or BTG's. In any case, to your question...

Can you tell us where you got this question? The answer here is a bit unusual...

Typically, when we want to evaluate a question, we need to find a logical gap between the premises and conclusion.

Premises:
- amount of insecticide/acre only slightly lower for modified cotton seed than regular
- modified seed costs more
- modified seed doesn't produce yields of higher value

Conclusion:
Switching to modified seed would be unlikely to benefit farmer economically

Logical Gap:
We have some information about revenue (no higher value) and cost (higher cost of seed, slightly lower cost of insecticide), and we're making a conclusion about profits. What we're missing is further information about revenue and cost. What if the modified seeds produced higher yields? Even at the same market value, higher yields would be more revenue. What about other costs, such as differences in costs of insecticide, labor, production, etc?

A. Other crops from modified seed are irrelevant to our argument. Incorrect

B. Here's what tricky about this question (which is why I'm curious about the origin). Usually, any information about other crops would be irrelevant here, too. But what they're getting at is this - cotton insecticide is really expensive. Therefore, any slight reduction in insecticide might make a big difference to overall profit. This decrease in this cost might then offset the increase in cost of seed, and would actually increase profits. CORRECT

C. Whether it's the primary crop doesn't effect the revenue/cost equation here. Incorrect

D. This would be relevant if the costs in our premises were total costs. But the premises were about costs per acre, so it doesn't matter how many acres were planted. Incorrect

E. This speaks to the farmers' motives. Most of the time in CR, we don't care why people did something, or what their feelings were about it. We only care what they did. This wouldn't actually speak to whether they're better off economically by switching. Incorrect