PrepTest 127, Section 1, Question 25
It is difficult to grow cacti in a(33 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(9 more words not shown)
- AHalf of the(6 more words not shown)
- BMost of the(3 more words not shown)
- CSome parts of(7 more words not shown)
- DIt is not(7 more words not shown)
- EMost parts of(4 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
There are two different obstacles. Humidity makes cacti difficult to grow. Cold makes orange trees difficult to raise. Difficult is not the same as impossible, and the passage does not say that these are the only obstacles either plant could face.
Now we learn that in most of the country, at least one of the two plants is easy to grow. “Most” means more than half. “Either” does not require both plants to grow easily in those places, and it does not require the same plant to be easy everywhere in that majority.
For example, one portion might be easy for cacti and another easy for orange trees. Or the entire majority might be easy for orange trees alone. Wherever cacti are easy, the stated humidity obstacle cannot be present; wherever orange trees are easy, the stated cold obstacle cannot be present. But the passage does not promise that both obstacles are absent in the same place.
What we’re looking for
We need the statement that must be false. Four choices can fit some arrangement of the country; one conflicts with the guarantee that more than half is easy for at least one plant. Keep that more-than-half requirement in view.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
A region that is both humid and cold makes both plants difficult: humidity obstructs cacti, and cold obstructs orange trees. Such a region cannot be part of the area where at least one plant is easy to grow.
If half the country were both humid and cold, at most the other half would remain available for the easy-to-grow area. But the passage requires that area to cover more than half. There is not enough room for both claims to be true, so A must be false. The precise boundary is half; we do not need to round “most” to 51 percent.
- B
Most of the country could be hot and easy for orange trees. The premises do not rule that out. They also do not require heat: not being cold might mean a moderate climate. Because hot is possible rather than contradicted, B is not the must-be-false answer.
- C
Some places could be neither cold nor humid, so C need not be false. But do not mistakenly treat it as required. A country could have one region that is cold but not humid, where cacti are easy, and another that is humid but not cold, where oranges are easy. At least one plant could be easy throughout that country without any region lacking both conditions.
- D
The guarantee uses “or,” so orange trees could be easy to raise throughout the majority while cacti are impossible everywhere for some other reason. Nothing says there must be even one place where cacti grow easily, and absence of humidity would not itself guarantee successful cactus growing. D is therefore possible, not something the facts force us to reject.
- E
Most of the country could be humid but not cold, with orange trees easy to raise in those parts. Humidity would make cacti difficult there, but that is fine: the requirement is that at least one of the two plants be easy. E can coexist with that requirement.
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