Logical Reasoning

PT116 · S2 · Q7 Failure to rotate crops depletes

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Failure to rotate crops depletes the soil’s nutrients gradually unless other preventive measures are taken.

Statements

Don't take preventive measures Soil and → nutrients Don't rotate crops depleted

Soil nutrients totally depleted Crops can't and → be grown no fertilizer added

Fertilizer → more vulnerable → must use used to pests pesticides

All other things being equal, more fertilizer, more vulnerable to pests, more likely treated with pesticides, worse for human health.

Question Stem Fact

This question stem provides one starter fact … the veggies were grown without fertilizer.

Evaluate

Does anything get triggered by the fact they were grown without fertilizer?

The fact that there was no fertilizer means the crops didn't need pesticide. They were presumably less vulnerable to pests / less likely to have been treated with pesticides.

The fact that they were grown at all triggers one of the two contrapositives.

Crops can soil nutrients not totally depleted be grown → or fertilizer was added

And since we know that fertilizer was NOT added, we know which part of that outcome would have to be true.

Goal

Since these crops were grown (and fertilizer was not added), it must be the case that the soil nutrients were not totally depleted.

Suppose there were some vegetables that were grown in soil to which fertilizer had never been applied. On the basis of the passage, which one of the following would have to be true regarding those vegetables?

The soil in which the
Contradicted
We know that the nutrients were not totally depleted. If they were, then crops wouldn't be able to grow there (unless fertilizer is added, which we know there was not).
15% picked this
It is not possible that
No Support: impossible crop rotation
There's no justification for thinking that these crops weren't grown in soil in which crops had been rotated. We weren't given any information that would allow us to prove any crops weren't grown in crop-rotated soil.
3% picked this
Correct
The vegetables were grown in
Why this is right
Since the crops were grown without fertilizer, we know for sure that the nutrients weren't completely depleted. The second part of this answer has no bearing on us picking it. Saying “not necessarily with X” / “maybe even with X” isn't really committing to any idea. It's saying we haven't definitively proven or refuted the possibility of crop rotation, which is accurate. We have no idea whether these crops were rotated.
Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
70% picked this
Whatever the health risks to
No Support: pesticide free Illegal Opposite
We don't know if these vegetables are pesticide free. We know that if fertilizer is used, then pesticides must be added. But we don't know that when fertilizer isn't used, then pesticides are not used.
11% picked this
The health risks to humans
Opposite
This seems to be going against the gist of the passage. We don't know whether our veggies did or didn't have pesticide, but there's definitely a chance they didn't, and so there's definitely a chance that they are less harmful than the same vegetables but with pesticides added.
2% picked this

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