Edgar: Some of the pumps supplying water to our region have been ordered shut down in order to protect a species of s...

Skylar on August 4, 2020

@hfatima1, happy to help!

We are looking to identify what Edgar and Rafaela disagree over.

(B) "the survival of the fish species is the only reason for shutting down the pumps."

Edgar would agree with this statement. Edgar explicitly states that the pumps are being "shut down in order to protect a species of small fish," a cause that Edgar finds "inconsequential" and "absurd" when considering the thousands of people it will inconvenience. On the other hand, Rafaela would disagree with this statement. Rafaela says the "threat to the fish species is a sign of a very serious threat to our water supply." In other words, Rafaela is saying the point is that the water supply thousands of people drink is being threatened as well, which is why the pumps must shut down. Since Edgar agrees and Rafaela disagrees with this statement, it is correct.

(C) "species of small fish are inconsequential"

Notice that (C) is talking about species of small fish (plural). Nowhere in the passage do either Edgar or Rafaela discuss their opinions about the importance of small fish species in general. Edgar implies that this specific species is inconsequential, but we do not know what Edgar thinks about all other species of small fish. Rafaela focuses on what the threat to this specific small fish species means in terms of threat to the water supply but never specifically comments on the importance of the specific small fish species, let alone on the importance of small fish species in general. Therefore, we do not have enough information to know what Edgar and Rafaela think about this statement, so we cannot say that they would disagree. For this reason, (C) is incorrect.

Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any other questions.