There are many agricultural regions in North America where the growing season is long enough to allow pumpkin product...

shunhe on April 2, 2020

Hi @ChristianJM,

Thanks for the question! Let’s take a look at the stimulus. We’re told that pumpkins theoretically could grow in lots of places in America that are pretty amenable to pumpkin growing. But in reality, pumpkins are grown in places with long winters, which is bad for pumpkins because they could be damaged by early autumn frosts.

We’re then asked for a possible way to resolve the discrepancy. It’s always good to try to come up with a pre-phrase for this. It might be that the regions with long, cold winters just happen to have the most farms, for example. Take a second to think of possible answers before diving into the answer choices.

Now to explain the actual answer: (D) tells us that the cold temperatures kill soil-borne fungus and other sources of disease that would kill or seriously damage pumpkins. Perhaps in the other reasons where the climate is amenable to growing pumpkins, these fungi and diseases would kill any pumpkins that might actually grow there. As a result, the only places pumpkins can grow are places where the cold also kills these organisms, despite the fact that they’re not the ideal climate for pumpkins. Thus, (D) helps explain the discrepancy and is our answer choice.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions that you might have.