DISCUSSION: Use your memory of the passage and your intuition to sort through answers.
But once you think you’ve found the right one, confirm it with the passage. There’s always specific lines that will let you prove these questions with 100% certainty.
___________
- It’s hard to guarantee crops. The second-to-last sentence of paragraph 2 says that the advance payment guarantees the right to harvest. However, there could always be drought, disease and crop failures.No one wants diseased, failed crops. But when crops fail, that’s all you get to harvest.
- CORRECT. See the second sentence of paragraph 4. The traditional view is that roads let farmers take produce to consumers.
- We have no idea how many farms a city of 50,000 can support. This simply isn’t mentioned.
- Ridiculous. The passage never mentions vehicle wear and tear, or what kind of roads people like. Roads were only mentioned to emphasize the change in direction: Rather than take food to people, take people to food.
- We have no idea why roads were given hard surfaces. Perhaps the hard surfaces helped farmers. But that doesn’t mean it was the main reason the roads were paved. There are thousands of uses for paved roads.
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Amer says
I don’t think D is ridiculous. The passage doesn’t directly mention consumer preferences but this question is regarding an inference, not something explicitly stated. The inference I made was from the fact that Whatley recommended that the CMC farm be located on hard-surfaced roads. I think it’s reasonable to assume that there is some rationale behind the recommendation, although not directly stated. Consumer preference for road quality on medium-to-lengthy drives seems to be the best available reasoning…
Naftali says
That is wrong. It mentions on lines 34/35 that 1000 people can crc a farm of 25 acres hence 50,000 people can do 50 farms of 25 acres.
FounderGraeme says
1000 is the number of people in the membership club. But it’s an unreasonable assumption that *all* 50,000 people in a town will be in the membership club. (Even babies?)
We know 50,000 people in membership clubs could support the number of farms mentioned in C. But that’s not the same thing as a town being able to do so.