When uncontrollable factors such as lack of rain cause farmers' wheat crops to fail, fertilizer and seed dealers, as...

shunhe on June 15, 2020

Hi @CarsonB,

Thanks for the question! Unfortunately, the answer to this one isn’t (A), it’s (E). Let’s walk through it. We’re told that when uncontrollable factors make farmers’ wheat crops fail, a bunch of people in other industries lose business/can’t make profits as well.

Now we’re asked for something that must be true based on the information above. (A) tells us that if several of the businesses that sell to farmers don’t prosper, it’s because farming itself isn’t prospering. But is this true? Not really. Maybe there’s a case in which farmers are prospering, but several of the businesses selling to farmers aren’t prospering for other reasons. Maybe they sell to other industries that aren’t prospering, maybe their business is just bad, etc. We can’t conclude (A) from the facts in the stimulus alone, and so we have to eliminate it.

Now let’s take a look at (E), which tells us that the consequences of a drought aren’t restricted to the drought’s impacts n farm productivity. Well, we know that’s true based on what the stimulus that tells us. Because we know that downstream effects of a drought will include affecting fertilizer and seed dealers and truckers and mechanics and fuel suppliers. So (E) is supported by the stimulus, and we can pick it as the correct answer.

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