Q27

[chocolatebunny]

I picked A because the passage states that specialty mills and minimills have succeeded in avoiding the worst of the economic difficulties facing integrated producers. Thus supporting the inference in answer choice A. Is A wrong because trading is never mentioned int he passage and thus it would be out of scope?

However, I still don't get why E is the answer.

[ohthatpatrick]

You seemed to be treating this question as, "What can be inferred from the passage". Your logic was that since we are told minimills are doing better, we can support something like (A).

If this were an Inference question, you'd still have to be very skeptical about the whole 'trade deficit' thing, which really comes out of left field.

This question, though, is asking for us to strengthen the author's explanation for why integrated steel producers are struggling.
(A) doesn't say or have anything to do with integrated steel producers, so it doesn't provide any explanation for why they're struggling.

======

Before we actually consider any of these answer choices, we should first be reminding ourselves of the author's explanation for the struggling economic condition of integrated steel. The question wants us to strengthen that explanation, so we better know what it is before we start reading answer choices.

We hopefully know from our passage map that this occurs in the final two paragraphs. Some of the main details the author cites include:

- excessive labor/energy/capital costs
- manufacturing inflexibility
- old and less automated equipment

However, in lines 46-49, the author's draws SPECIAL emphasis to the idea that integrated producers are inherently inefficient.

The final paragraph tries to elaborate that claim.

Why are the integrated producers ineffecient?

They still use the "archaic energy-and-capital-intensive front end of the iron-smelting process, including the mining and preparation of raw materials and the blast-furnace operation".

Also, they apparently don't market their products as locally as do minimills, so they pay higher transportation costs.

The correct answer to Q27 is going to reinforce one of these 5 or 6 details the author gave us about why integrated steel is struggling.

(E) is correct because it reinforces the idea that integrated steel producers are struggling in part because they still do the front end iron-smelting process. (E) is offering evidence that the iron-smelting process is something you'll lose money doing (if nations have to subsidize that process in order to make it profitable, it means that the process is not profitable on its own).

=== other answers ===

(B) This goes the wrong direction and makes it seem like integrated steel producers should be doing better than they are.

(C) This is irrelevant ... the question stem isn't about US vs. Japanese steel producers ... it's about integrated steel producers in general ... the last paragraph explains that there are problems that afflict both US and Japanese integrated steel producers.

(D) This sounds more like an explanation of how integrated steel is trying to get better, not an explanation of why it's struggling.

Hope this helps.

[seychelles1718]

If D instead said "Integerated producers...HAVE ATTEMPTED from the past to develop a worldwide market...," could it be the correct answer?
I think if integrated producers have attempted to develop a worldwide market from the past, it strengthens the author's comparison that unlike integrated producers, minimills were able to avoid the economic decline by selling their products locally.

[ohthatpatrick]

I think that's fair. It would still be an inferior answer to (E), since (E) really reinforces the author's PRIMARY reason for the economic condition of integrated producers.

But you're right that any answer that corroborates the idea that "integrated producers are trying too much to sell their products at large, expensive distances" would be reinforcing another aspect of the author's explanation.