#8 - Global Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Djaviana]

I had a fairly easy time eliminating all the incorrect answer choices, so I ended up choosing E through process of elimination, but my problem with this answer choice is that I felt that passage B didn't answer this question. Although the author of passage B stated that the scientific community claims that it is the wetlands that is affected by the purple loosestrife, I felt that the author was claiming that the purple loosestrife does not affect the environment. If true, then technically the information in the passage is not sufficient to answering E because the author does not mention a type of terrain that is affected by the presence of this plant, only that no terrain is affected. Please let me know where I am wrong or if I interpreted anything incorrectly. I assumed maybe that the author doesn't necessarily need to agree with the statement for it to address the answer choice. If so then the reference to the scientific community claiming the wetlands is affected would be sufficient for choice E. But I am curious if I can use this mentality / assumption comfortably while studying for the exam or is this unwarranted?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Djaviana,

The author of Passage B isn't claiming that the purple loosestrife has had no effect on wildlife, only that the people who practice purple loosestrife control have exaggerated the effect/damage and that they have valued certain species (such as game birds and furbearing mammals) over other species due to economic reasons.

There are a few textual clues in Passage B to indicate that the author admits that purple loosestrife has had an effect on wildlife. The second paragraph begins "Regardless of the perceived and actual ecological effects posed by the purple invader..." (my emphasis)(lines 43-44). This indicates that the purple loosestrife has in fact had ecological effects on wildlife, just not the exaggerated effects that are perceived by the people who want to eliminate purple loosestrife. While this line doesn't specifically mention wetlands, the final sentence of the passage does.

The final sentence of Passage B indicates that "what is threatened by the purple loosestrife is the economics of exploiting such preferred species (i.e. game birds and furbearing mammals) ... due to the decline in the production of the wetland resource (again referring to game birds and furbearing mammals)(my emphasis)(lines 59-65). In other words, the purple loosestrife is causing a decrease in these wetland species (although not to the extent that they are endangered).