New Zealand's Wool Growers

Answer choices

1. A

   Opposite2% picked this

   New Zealand wool growers should be encouraged to shift to other agricultural exports

   This answer is telling the wool growers that the Solution to their problem is to give up on wool and try exporting a different product. We want the answer to say the Solution to their problem is to copy the methods of the top growers.

   2%
2. B

   Unrelated to Purpose1% picked this

   Wool growing in New Zealand parallels agricultural practices worldwide in that it is becoming deeply divided between large professional

   This answer has nothing to do with the Problem / Solution framework. At best we could say this names the Problem, but it doesn't even really do that. Instead of focusing on the central topic (New Zealand's wool growers), this answer is making it seem like the passage was mainly focused on a global trend of family vs. factory farms.

   1%
3. C

   Wrong Emphasis: Problem, not Solution11% picked this

   New Zealand's wool industry has been adversely affected by the development and

   In any Problem / Solution passage in which there is an actual solution that's recommended, the solution is the must-have for our main point. An author who writes a Problem / Solution passage tells us about the Problem as background, but her real purpose in writing the passage is to communicate what she sees as the solution. This answer only tells us the problem. We need to hear the Solution: New Zealand's wool growers should copy the methods of the top growers.

   11%
4. D

   Correct82% picked this

   Superior farm management should be encouraged among New Zealand's wool growers to revitalize the

   Why this is right

   This has the recommendation vibe ("should be encouraged") that sounds like we're hearing the author's Solution. We were looking to match up with the end of the 2nd paragraph, where the author says that we could readily fix this problem if the industry as a whole adopted the practices of the leading wool growers. Does "adopting the practices of the leading wool growers (who are comfortably profitable)" qualify as "superior farm management"? Sure, in fact the first sentence of the 3rd paragraph even uses similar language: Gains ... can come wholly through better farm management.

   Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   82%
5. E

   Trap4% picked this

   The wool industry in New Zealand has put too much focus on increasing the efficiency of processing and has failed to address

   Too Narrow Out of Scope: dwindling stocks The main point of this passage should sound like a solution / recommendation, which this answer does not sound like. This answer sounds like it's pinpointing a problem. We might "hear" an implicit recommendation, like, "Don't do the thing I just said was problematic". But this answer makes it sound like the author's main purpose was to describe something that already happened. Meanwhile, we think the author's main purpose was to recommend what we should do next. This answer would be much better if it simply said, "The wool industry should put less focus on increasing the efficiency of processing and more focus into the issue of selective breeding". Even still, it would be a bit narrow. The broader, umbrella claim is that wool growers in NZ should be adopting the habits of the top performers. Shifting from processing efficiency to selective breeding would be one such way. Finally, this answer is talking about "dwindling breeding stocks". The passage never suggested that we're running out of breeding stocks. It's just saying that we can make much more money if we focus on finding the breeding stocks that yield the most profitable wool, and then make sure that we're breeding as much of those genetically optimized sheep.

   4%