CR: Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

I do not know how to solve this CR:

Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly among people new to gardening. Accordingly, we will no longer publish articles or accept advertisements praising the beauty of rare wildflowers. Most such plants sold to gardeners have been difficult to propagate under cultivation, so plant sellers often collect them in the wild. Our new policy is part of our efforts to half this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the wisdom of the magazine's new policy as a way of pursuing the intended effect ?

(A) When people new to gardening buy plants, they often fail to take adequate care of the plants that they buy and become discourged from buying those varieties again.

(B) Plant sellers who sell rare wildflowers have no reasonably inexpensive alternate way to offer their wares directly to new gardens.

(C) The demand for rare wildflowers rarely exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers.

(D) The propagation of rare wildflowers often depends on the plant's interaction with other organisms in their environment such as plants that create suitable soil conditions or insects and birds that disperse seeds.

(E) Revenues from sales of plants collected in the wild are supporting the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries.

[sunny.jain]

Conclusion:

Magazine will not publish any thing about wildflowers in order to half the plundering of its native plant populations.

Fact:
1) Article in magazine can spur the sale of plant, specially for new gardener.
2) Wildflower are difficult to propagate in cultivation.


Options
A) Support the argument: ppl will not buy the wild flowers again after buying it once, so they will go for native plants.
B) Support the argument: since magazine is the only way to let ppl know about wild plants so No advertisement --> no sales.
C) it weaken the Magazine policy, It says the Demand of wildflower is less than number of wildflowers collected. Means, even
after the advertisement the demand goes up(fact 1), seller can not meet up demand( Fact 2) as they can not grow the plan under normal condition.
So magazine doesn't need to bother about them if they can not potentially reduce the plundering of native plants.

this is weakening the policy, but Do we know about 'the number of wildflower collected by sellers, what is this number is way greater than the native population"
but still keep this in pocket.

D) irrelevant
E) Revenue from wild plants sales --> help to find new technique --> will make the wildflowers as native nursery plants --> so wild flower sale is good for nursery.
this seriously weaken the magazine's policy.

It somewhat weird than C but it doesn't give us any doubt as C does. so i will choose E but i agree C is tempting for me.

Please provide OA, I think its E.

[NIKESH_PAHUJA]

Argument is :

magazine Wont publish article on wildflower -----> This act will save wildflowers


What if publishing articles on wildflowers helps in saving them ? If this is true, argument is weakened. ( As intended effect can be achieved without the stated action )

This is exactly what E is saying.

[RonPurewal]

Argument is :

magazine Wont publish article on wildflower -----> This act will save wildflowers


What if publishing articles on wildflowers helps in saving them ? If this is true, argument is weakened. ( As intended effect can be achieved without the stated action )

This is exactly what E is saying.

perfect.

[sudaif]

Why exactly is A wrong?

[nehajadoo]

I still don't understand why C is wrong?

Even though the magazine raises awareness of this wildflower which leads to some demand, as long as the demand is lower than the 'supply' the magazine does not have to worry about the flowers being plundered.

I was stuck between E and C too but chose C because I felt that C was a step closer to the facts, E required additional 'thinking'.

[tim]

Okay, the best reason why A and C are wrong is because E is a perfect answer. THAT'S ALL YOU NEED FOR CR. Remember, even if all five choices cast doubt on the policy, the one that is better than the others makes the others wrong answers, EVEN IF they do what the question asks. Of course, in this case neither A nor C does what the question asks:

A: So what if the new gardeners only buy these exotic varieties once? They still buy the flowers, so the damage has been done..

C: So what if the demand rarely exceeds potential supply? There is still a demand that is being supplied, so the damage has been done..

[karanrob]

Ok Why is it that choice A and choice c are wrong. Here Goes:

The paragraph mentions that Articles often spur sales of plants they describe, PARTICULARLY among people new to gardening - This does not imply that ONLY new gardeners are attracted to these plants. Some experienced are attracted as well.

Now . Choice A - When new gardeners buy these plants, they OFTEN fail to take care of these plants. NOW - 1. New gardeners not always fail to take care, hence some plants do survice.
2. Experienced gardeners are able to take care so their plants survive as well. .
BOTH 1,2 gardeners will in all probability go and buy these plants again hence DOES NOT WEAKEN.

Choice C - The demand RARELY exceeds - converts to demand must be close to supply for someone to say rarely exceeds. Does not weaken again.

[tim]

thanks for sharing your perspective!

[skiver]

Argument is :

magazine Wont publish article on wildflower -----> This act will save wildflowers


What if publishing articles on wildflowers helps in saving them ? If this is true, argument is weakened. ( As intended effect can be achieved without the stated action )

This is exactly what E is saying.

perfect.

Need additional help here.
E states that "the discovery of new low-cost techniques enabling rare wildflowers to be readily propagated in nurseries."
but isn't that means that these rare wildflowers will be collected for nursery?? I think Im a little bit confused with the meaning of this answer... could you please paraphrase that one?

Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

Thank you!

"readily propagated" means that it will be easy to grow more of those flowers in nurseries. if that's the case, then growing more of them will counteract their depletion.

[arnavs247]

Thank you!

"readily propagated" means that it will be easy to grow more of those flowers in nurseries. if that's the case, then growing more of them will counteract their depletion.

doesn't option A talk about plants in general? i mean, its talking about plants that are bought by new gardeners that are not maintained because of which they die. Nothing specific about wildflowers.

[RonPurewal]

This issue is addressed here:

post105946.html#p105946
Before considering any hypothetical "pattern" or "rule", always subject it to everyday common sense. If it fails, then it's not a thing.

[JingweiH702]

Hello,

Just a follow-up question,

if I changed answer choice C to " the demand for rare wildflowers now exceeds the number of such plants that can be collected in the wild by plant sellers." Will this altered answer choice strengthen the argument? I reckon no, right?

[RonPurewal]

it is a FACT that "plant sellers often collect them in the wild". thus, any such statement about demand levels is superfluous.

analogy:
if "it's raining right now" (FACT), then statements such as "rain is likely/unlikely under current circumstances" add no value.