#27 - GR, Must Be True

[alexng30]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone was able to provide some clarification on why A is the correct answer as opposed to E? I understand why A is a technically correct answer (fields with Cyclamen and Typhlodromus mites don’t reach significantly damaging levels as stated at the end of the first paragraph), but I’m failing to see how E is a wrong answer as I feel that it has strong support from the passage as well. The final paragraph talks about how the results of the greenhouse experiment are reflected in real-world observations regarding damage to field planting of strawberries (lines 52-56).

If we break down and analyze answer E, describing the causing of cyclamen mites to become a serious crop pest as having been done “unintentionally” is valid as no reasonable strawberry grower would knowingly implement a pest control method that actually ends up exacerbating an issue that directly damages their crops. Furthermore, the notion that the indiscriminate use of parathion in strawberry crops caused cyclamen mites to “become a serious crop pest” appears to be supported by information in both the first and third paragraphs, where the effect of allowing cyclamen mite population to reach a critical level is explicitly referred to as “significantly damaging” at the end of both paragraphs.

Thanks!
Alex

[Dana D]

Hey Alex,

Remember this question is a MSS, so answer choice (A) is not only technically right, but it must also be true based on the information given in the passage. That is the highest level of surety you can get, so if you narrowed it down to answers (A) and (E), you should feel comfortable picking (A).

That being said, answer choice (E) is a weaker option because the passage doesn't actually tell us what strawberry growers know. Sure, we can make the assumption that they would not continually rely on parathion if they knew it was actually exacerbating their pest problems, but the question asks what information in the passage most strongly supports, and strawberry growers knowledge is not mentioned. Or, perhaps strawberry growers do know that parathion is not helping mitigate their cyclamen mite issue, but there is another reason they continually use parathion - we just don't know from the passage alone, therefore we cannot say answer choice (E) is the MSS answer.

Hope that helps!

[pandapaws]

I have a question in response to the last post. Does this mean that it's equally possible that strawberry growers could have also intentionally caused cyclamen mites to become a serious crop pest, since we don't know what their intentions are based on the information given in the passage? Because I assumed that the passage supported the idea that strawberry growers do not want cyclamen mites to become a serious crop pest so if they cause this to happen it must be an unintentional action.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi pandapaws,

The short answer is that, based on the passage, we really don't know anything about what strawberry growers have or haven't done or what they did or didn't intend, so any answer discussing their actions/beliefs/intentions (like Answer E) will be incorrect. For example, we don't even know that strawberry growers have even specifically used parathion on their strawberry plants, much less "indiscriminate" use as mentioned in Answer E. We also don't know how much of a problem cyclamen mites actually are in strawberry fields and what steps growers are taking to deal with them. Perhaps the growers are allowing the Typhlodromus mites to take care of them, or perhaps they are using a completely different pesticide. The passage is only focused on what seems to be the best solution based on the experiments.

While this isn't made explicit in the passage, the "field plantings" mentioned in line 53 are referring to experiments tested in actual strawberry fields to compare the results to the experiments in conducted in the greenhouses. Presumably, these are not the actual professional strawberry growers conducting these experiments; they are conducted by scientists to study these different treatment methods. I mention this because some test takers assume that the strawberry growers used parathion because parathion was used in the field plantings.

The passage itself is written based on the assumption that strawberry growers would want to reduce/eliminate cyclamen mites in their strawberry fields, and this seems to be a reasonable assumption given that cyclamen mites damage the strawberry plants. I suppose it could be possible that strawberry growers intentionally caused cyclamen mites to become a serious crop pest, although this would certainly be puzzling unless the cyclamen mites provide some benefit to the strawberry crops that we do not know about.