PrepTest 156, Section 1, Question 2

Working the answers

• A

  We aren't promised that heirlooms will eventually match commercial yields at a lower cost. Disease resistance and reduced irrigation needs don't establish that particular economic comparison.

• B

  Relief would suggest the relevant protection has already been achieved. The author instead calls for immediate action because the crops and knowledge are under threat. Recognizing a resource's potential isn't relief that the problem has been solved.

• C
  Correct

  The final sentence proposes preserving the knowledge and integrating it with genetic conservation to bolster long-term sustainability. That recommendation depends on optimism that the knowledge can strengthen the genetic base. It doesn't require confidence that preservation will happen automatically.

• D

  The generations of accumulated knowledge belong to indigenous farmers. Crop geneticists have only recently recognized its value. D substitutes generations of academic study for generations of farming experience and then attributes pride in that nonexistent history.

• E

  The market economy is described as contributing to the decline of small-scale farming and exchange networks. The author isn't confident it will encourage heirloom production. That reverses the reason the final paragraph calls for intervention.