PrepTest 148, Section 4, Question 10
Farmer: Agricultural techniques such as crop rotation that(58 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- AThe government sponsors(21 more words not shown)
- BFor almost any(22 more words not shown)
- CInvestigations of agricultural(18 more words not shown)
- DMost if not(15 more words not shown)
- EMost if not(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What about farmers doing their own research? What about nonprofit groups? Ruling out private for-profit corporations doesn't leave the government as the only possible source of funding.
The farmer's concern makes sense up to a point. A strategy such as crop rotation doesn't itself give a corporation a product to sell, even if the strategy works at least as well as one that uses commercial products. The passage tells us corporations won't fund research unlikely to produce something marketable. But someone could value better farming without needing a product to sell.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to strengthen the conclusion that this research is mostly government-sponsored. I'd look for a reason to set aside those other possible sponsors. If individuals and nonprofit organizations rarely funded agricultural research, the move from 'not corporations' to 'usually the government' would be much better supported.
Working the answers
- A
Some government-sponsored investigations don't establish that the government is almost the only sponsor. A large amount of research by farmers or nonprofits could exist alongside those government projects. A confirms participation, while the argument makes a much stronger claim about who does most of this research.
- B
This concerns how often noncommercial techniques can solve agricultural problems. The conclusion concerns who funds research into those techniques. They could be useful for almost every problem and still be investigated by governments, farmers, nonprofits, or some combination. B doesn't narrow the possible sponsors.
- CCorrect
Sponsors other than private for-profit corporations and the government are rare. That directly addresses the alternatives we raised. Combined with the stated corporate reluctance to fund research unlikely to lead to marketable products, C makes government funding a much more plausible main source. 'Rarely' fits the conclusion's 'for the most part'; we don't need to eliminate every exceptional project.
- D
This explains who funds techniques that use commercial products. We need to know who funds techniques that don't. Even if corporations fund nearly all research into commercial products, nonprofit organizations could still fund extensive research into other techniques.
- E
This tells us where most of the government's agricultural research goes, not where most research of this kind gets its funding. The government could devote nearly all its efforts to noncommercial techniques while nonprofits also funded a great deal of work on them. E doesn't close off the other sources. C does address how common those other sponsors are.
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