Q7

[jm.kahn]

I was between B and C and picked C.

Why is C wrong?
Line 34-36 state "to realize profits on 25-acre farm a CMC of bout 1000 people is needed".

This implies that a population of 50*1000 should be able to support a 50 twenty-five acre farms. This is same as C.

[nandy_millette]

Why is the answer choice not C? Helppppp, I'm confused

[fmuirhea]

The math isn't that simple for (C). Yes, 1,000 people are required, but to then claim that a population of 50,000 should support at least (!) 50 farms would require that every single person in that city joins a CMC**, which is unlikely. There are almost definitely some people who don't see the appeal of fruits and vegetables and instead prefer to eat Taco Bell all day, or who are perfectly content going to the grocery store for their produce rather than venturing out to the country.

**(Granted, it is possible that some people join more than one CMC, but even if this were the case, it's still unlikely that those joining multiple CMCs could make up for all those who choose not to join any.)

In fact, the fourth paragraph suggests you need a population centre of at least 50,000 just to get to the magic 1,000 customers. Imagine the people who accost you when you walk into some big box store, asking if you want to open up a store credit card. Not everybody says yes, but some do - they play a numbers game, asking as many people as possible because they know the majority are going to say no. The passage suggests 50,000 is about how many people you need to solicit to get 1,000 to join a CMC.

(B) is much easier to support, as it contains the wonderfully weak term "some." It is supported by lines 44-45: "the traditional view of hard-surfaced roads as farm-to-market roads"

The other incorrect answer choices contain language that is too strong or otherwise unsupported:

(A) "guarantees" The clients will have input as to the crops grown, but this doesn't mean everybody will get everything they want. This answer choice could be tempting because the passage brings up the idea of a guarantee in line 22, but it is qualified as "help guarantee" and furthermore is in reference to the farmers, not their clients.

(D) "prefer" Is any comparison made between road types? Is there any discussion of wear and tear on vehicles? This is one of those statements that is probably true in the real world, but there's no support for it in the passage. Remember that you must stick closely to the information given for inference questions.

(E) "most" "primarily" Is there any discussion of the motivation for constructing the roads? Just because farmers use them doesn't mean they were originally constructed with the farmers in mind.

[christine.defenbaugh]

Excellent explanation fmuirhea!

As you lay out, there are two distinct problems with (C):

1) Necessary vs sufficient: lines 34-35 indicate that a population of 1000 is needed for a 25-acre farm. Nothing in that sentence tells us that a population of 1000 is enough to guarantee that a farm will be supported

2) population of CMC vs population of a city: lines 34-35 indicate that 1000 people in a CMC are needed to support a farm. Just having 1000 people in the nearby city doesn't do any good if those people aren't actually a part of the CMC

On the other hand, if the traditional view of hard-surfaced roads is that they are "farm-to-market roads", then that must be because they were traditionally used to transport things from farms to markets (in cities)!

Wonderful explanation and skillful eliminations of the remaining answers!

[coco.wu1993]

Is A wrong because crops may fail?
I eliminated B because, per line 44-46, hard-surfaced roads were used to transport produce from farm to market, rather than directly to customers. Please help

[christine.defenbaugh]

Is A wrong because crops may fail?
I eliminated B because, per line 44-46, hard-surfaced roads were used to transport produce from farm to market, rather than directly to customers. Please help

That's absolutely one reason why the members might not be guaranteed to get the produce they want! But there could be a host of other reasons too - maybe the farmers grow only what the *majority* of the members want, and don't fulfill every desire. Or maybe the farmers just have to grow what works with the soil, member preferences be darned.

The more important takeaway here is that there is absolutely no support in the passage for the idea that the advance payment would guarantee that the members get the produce they way. We don't need to tax ourselves coming up with all the ways (or any particular way) that might not occur. If there's no direct support FOR (A), then we cannot choose it.

As for (B), when it says "to their customers", I don't think we have to read that quite so literally as to suggest that the farmers bring it directly to the doorstep of each individual customer. So, let's take the citation from the passage - "farm-to-market" - why would a farmer be bringing his produce to a market? Because that's where the customers are!

So bringing produce to market IS bringing it to the customer - because the customer is going to be at the market!

Does that helps clear this up a bit?

[jm.kahn]

Excellent explanation fmuirhea!

As you lay out, there are two distinct problems with (C):

1) Necessary vs sufficient: lines 34-35 indicate that a population of 1000 is needed for a 25-acre farm. Nothing in that sentence tells us that a population of 1000 is enough to guarantee that a farm will be supported

2) population of CMC vs population of a city: lines 34-35 indicate that 1000 people in a CMC are needed to support a farm. Just having 1000 people in the nearby city doesn't do any good if those people aren't actually a part of the CMC

On the other hand, if the traditional view of hard-surfaced roads is that they are "farm-to-market roads", then that must be because they were traditionally used to transport things from farms to markets (in cities)!

Wonderful explanation and skillful eliminations of the remaining answers!

Thanks for enumerating 2 distinct problems with C. With regards to (1) Necessary vs sufficient issue, I was confused if this distinction would really hold in this case. If the answer choice had said "A group of 50,000 people who are members of CMCs, should be able to support CMCs on at least fifty 25-acre farms" would this still fail the bar for the "most supported by the passage" question type.

In other words, can the issue of necessary vs sufficient ("needed" vs "should be able to support") alone really be the reason for eliminating the answer choice "A group of 50,000 people who are members of CMCs, should be able to support CMCs on at least fifty 25-acre farms"?

[709252721]

Actually I still have a question concerning B, which says "some farmers transport their produce. " However the passage only mentions farm to markets but doesn't indicate the people who transport them are farmers. And that's why I eliminate choice B.
Please help~

[Daniel14]

I am going to take a crack at explaining why the correct answer is B and not A:

B can be inferred from lines 44-46. Especially key in on the word, "traditional" used in both B and in line 44. From the passage, we can conclude that hard-surfaced roads were the traditional means by which farmers used to get their produce to the cities.

A is not correct because it is too strong. Even if a CMC member pays in advance, that doesn't necessarily guarantee they will get the produce they want. What if there was a drought in the produce the CMC member ordered and paid in advance and therefore, the farm could not grow the desired produce? Not to mention that the passage does not mention anywhere that CMC members are guaranteed the produce they ordered even if they paid in advance for that produce.