Source: 1000 CR: Editorialist: The positions advanced by

[jahnavi_p]

18. Editorialist: The positions advanced by radical environmentalists often contain hypotheses that are false and proposals that are economically infeasible. But there is a positive role to be played even by these extremists, for the social and political inertia that attends environmental issues is so stubborn that even small areas of progress can be made only if the populace fears environmental disaster, however untenable the reasons for those fears may be.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the editorialist’s argument?
(A) The little progress that has been made in improving the environment is mainly due to the fear created by radical environmentalists.
(B) Radical environmentalists, by promoting their views, stimulate progress on environmental issues.
(C) Social and political inertia is most effectively overcome by an extremely fearful populace, regardless of whether its fears are well-founded.
(D) Radical environmentalists often put forth untenable positions in order to produce the fear that is required to bring about moderate reforms.
(E) Radical environmentalists advocate positions without regard for factual support or economic feasibility.

I am really confused here...........It will help if the experts give their reasoning for each options (especially B and D where I was stuck). Thanks

[tim]

Let me paraphrase here:

Radical environmentalists sometimes say things that are wrong or don't work. However, sometimes fear (rational or otherwise) is needed to kick the public into shape. Therefore, maybe these extremists are doing some good by creating this fear.

Note that i added a little to the conclusion in order to connect the wrong/broken proposals to fear and thus on to progress. That's the part that I would put in brackets in my diagram. Now I'm going to look for something that indicates a connection between what the environmentalists are doing and the subsequent fear and then progress. So you're right to narrow your choices down to B and D at this point. Now let's take a look specifically at B and D. B gives us a nice and easily digestible conclusion that radical environmentalists can make some progress. On the other hand D suggests that this happens regularly and that it is the radical environmentalists intent to create the fear that brings about reform. This ends up being a more extreme position, and one that is not altogether supported by the text. In contrast, B stays much closer to the text itself and does not try to impute any motives or intentions to the environmentalists.