Critical Reasoning (CR) | Re: Insect infestations in certain cotton-growing regions of the world hav

Understanding the argument -
Goal - increase their income significantly.
Plan - Cease growing soybeans and begin raising cotton instead.

What is this plan dependent on? Cotton prices are rising. How? Because of Insect infestation. Insect infestation (cause) leads to high cotton prices (effect). And we made our whole plan on this. Oh, I see. So this argument is like a bunch of cards stacked on top. You pull one key card, and the whole stack comes down. What is that key card here? The insect infestation. If somehow the insect infestation comes down, then the argument falls apart.

There could be other weakeners as well. What if the soil doesn't support cotton? What if, as the supply increases, the prices immediately come down? But this argument uses such a fundamental weakness that it's easy to miss this weakness.

Option Elimination -

(A) The cost of raising soybeans has increased significantly over the past several years and is expected to continue to climb. - Strengthener.

(B)
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Statistics : Posted by Raman109 • on 14 Jun 2008, 07:34 • Replies 40 • Views 87399

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