#14 - A new tax law aimed at encouraging the reforestation

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Albert,

We know the land they cleared was forested, because the company (a lumber company) was going to hold that land in reserve. This means the company had lumber, i.e. forest, there that they were going to reserve. And since they cleared that land, they must have deforested it. So at the end of the company's two actions, there is more cleared land (land without forest) than forested land (land that they reforested).

Let me know if that answers your question? Thanks!

Jeremy

[Albertlyu]

Hi Jeremy,

Got it, I missed the "Lumber company". thanks.

Albert

[ps884197@gmail.com]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (D)

This stimulus provides a fact set with no real conclusion, although we might have some reaction to the information presented. The referenced program is intended to increase the region’s forested land. In the one example discussed, however, the program led to a net decrease in forested land. Thus, we might react by drawing from the example the idea that the program in some cases can have counterproductive results. This is precisely what answer choice (D) explains.

Answer choice (A): This answer is far too broad to be justified by the stimulus. There is no way to assess whether the program has completely failed to encourage reforestation; all we can draw from the stimulus is that there was at least one case with counterproductive results.

Answer choices (B), (C), and (E): These answers are also unsupported, as there is no way to know whether the program will have any immediate effect, if there will be any net effect, or if there will ultimately be a “massive decrease” based on the limited information in the stimulus.

Answer choice (D): As explained above, this is the correct answer choice.

THIS IS AN UNSUAL QUESTION TO ME. IT DOESNT HAVE ANY CONCLUSION. WHILE DEALING WITH SUCH STEMS WHICH DONT HAVE A ONCLUSION, ARENT OUR ANSWER CHOICES ARE BASED ON OUR OWN ASSUMPTIONS? HOWDO WE KNOW WHICH ASSUMPTION IS MOST LIKELY TRUE?

[Robert Carroll]

ps884197,

It's typical for a stimulus associated with a Must Be True question not to have an argument, and thus not to have a conclusion. We don't want to make any assumptions in situations like these - we want to employ what we call the Fact Test to the answers. According to the Fact Test, an answer is correct for a Must Be True question only if the facts in the stimulus alone are sufficient to prove that answer true. It's not about what's likely or what's assumed, but what the stimulus as written has already shown to be the case.

Must Be True questions are discussed in the Logical Reasoning Bible and in our course materials. Additionally, there's a post here that discusses some aspects to look at for these question types: viewtopic.php?p=72100#p72100

Robert Carroll