PrepTest 122, Section 1, Question 9
Technological improvements will enable food production to increase(77 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(8 more words not shown)
- AThe more centralized(11 more words not shown)
- BNot every problem(14 more words not shown)
- CThe rate at(11 more words not shown)
- DThe production of(8 more words not shown)
- ESocieties have become(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Better technology could help us grow more food. The passage adds a catch: meaningful increases require better coordination through a more centralized society. It then points to a danger. Historically, more centralized societies lost a greater share of their people when they collapsed.
My first reaction is to question the forecast. What if the society doesn't collapse? What if a modern centralized system handles disruption better than the historical examples? And even if a collapse would be worse, feeding people in the meantime could still be a benefit. Those are questions I'd raise if we were evaluating the argument's overall judgment.
What we’re looking for
But we're asked what the statements most strongly support if they're true. So set those challenges aside and accept the account we're given. The food technology offers a benefit, but the passage still says greater centralization will worsen the disasters associated with collapse. I don't have a precise answer predicted yet. Let's test each choice against those claims, without adding a whole history or future forecast the passage never supplied.
Working the answers
- A
Centralization is presented as a requirement for coordinating increased food production. That doesn't mean becoming centralized creates a greater need for food. A population could need more food before it changes its organization. A confuses what makes greater production possible with what makes it needed.
- BCorrect
The technology doesn't eliminate every problem associated with collapse. How do we know? Even with better food technology, the passage says that the accompanying increase in centralization will worsen the disasters if society collapses. Those disasters remain a problem rather than disappearing because technology improved.
This is a modest conclusion. It doesn't say technology is useless, or that collapse is inevitable. It says not every problem would be prevented, which fits an account that explicitly leaves serious dangers in place.
- C
Nothing establishes that the rate of population growth will increase forever. Discussing the ability to produce more food as population increases doesn't give us an unlimited forecast of ever-faster growth.
- D
Improved technology offers a way to increase food production, subject to the coordination requirement. The passage doesn't say it is the only way. Perhaps people could put more existing land or labor into farming without inventing better technology. D rules out possibilities the passage never excludes.
- E
The passage says greater centralization is needed for the proposed production gains. That is different from telling us that societies have actually become more centralized as technology improved. A condition for a future result doesn't establish this historical trend.
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