Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT153 S1 P2 Q8 ExplanationFish Farming

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Passage

A recent worldwide decline of ocean fishery stocks has stimulated rapid growth in cultivated production of fish and shellfish, usually known as fish farming. Between 1987 and 1997, for example, global fish production from farming doubled. Fish farming produces a quarter of all fish and shellfish eaten by humans, and, as global solution, but also a potential contributing factor, to the continued decline of ocean fishery stocks worldwide.

In the first place, the more intensive forms of fish farming, oriented toward high-volume production, threaten the sustainability of ocean fisheries through water pollution and ecological disruption. Intensive fish farming usually involves the enclosure of fish in a secure system; population densities are typically high, resulting in the generation of large amounts pathogens can all ensue, seriously damaging ocean and coastal resources and, ultimately, wild fishery stocks.

Even more important, intensive farming of many species of fish requires large inputs of fish meal and fish oil in order to supply fatty acids that vegetable matter lacks or essential amino acids that it inadequately supplies, like lysine and methionine. For the ten species of fish most commonly farmed, an average carnivorous species requires up to 5 kilograms of wild fish for every kilogram of fish produced.

Expanding farm production does have the potential to alleviate some of the pressure on wild fishery stocks. For example, increasing the farm production of fish like salmon can reduce prices, deterring investment in fishing fleets and, over time, reducing fishing efforts. Similarly, other farmed fish like tilapia and channel catfish provide alternatives catch rates to remain high even as the production of viable farmed substitutes has increased.

What this question is testing

Five Questions

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

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The question
8.

There is information in the passage sufficient to answer which one of

Answer choices, explained

  1. Unsupported Causal Relationship: result in15% picked this

    How does the escape of species not native to a farmʼs region result

    The only mention of habitat destruction comes at the end of the 2nd paragraph. We're told that habitat destruction can occur through the spread of untreated waste, through the escape of species not native to the farm's region, or through contamination by new pathogens. But it never dives into that 2nd detail to explain how the escape of non-native species can lead to habitat destruction. It only says that the escape of non-native species can lead to habitat destruction.

  2. Too Specific: sort of shellfish3% picked this

    What sort of shellfish is most commonly raised on

    Shellfish is only covered in the 1st and 3rd sentences of the passage, but no specific types of shellfish are ever named. (Shellfish are like shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.)

  3. Buzzword Bait: kilograms8% picked this

    Approximately how many kilograms of fish, on average, does a wild salmon consume

    The 3rd paragraph is the only time hear about kilograms of fish. We know that salmon has a very high input-to-output ratio (you have to feed salmon between 1.9 - 5 kg of wild fish for each 1 kg of salmon you produce). But we don't know how heavy the average salmon is, so we can't apply this ratio to anything in order to derive an answer to this question. If we produce a 10kg salmon, then it apparently consumed 19 - 50 kg of wild fish. If we produce 5kg salmon, then it consumes 10-25 kg of wild fish in its lifetime.

  4. Correct72% picked this

    What proportion of the fish and shellfish eaten by humans is produced

    Why this is right

    Shellfish is only mentioned in the 1st and 3rd sentences of the passage, and in the 3rd passage it says that, Fish farming produces a quarter of all fish and shellfish eaten by humans. So 1/4, or 25%, of the fish and shellfish eaten by humans is produced on fish farms.

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

  5. Buzzword Bait: niche markets2% picked this

    How long does it take for niche markets for wild-caught fish to have an appreciable

    Niche markets are only discussed in the final sentence of the passage, and that sentence doesn't give us any way to derive how long it takes for niche markets to have an appreciable effect.

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