@LisaCao the stimulus gives us two "some" statements about environmentalists. Remember that "many" is represented by "some." "Some" is at least one, possibly all.
The first statement tells us that some environmentalists "question the prudence of exploiting features of the environment" because there are no economic benefits to non-existent environments.
E-some-QPEE QPEE-some-E
The second statements tells us that some environmentalists believe that it is "wrong to destroy such features of the environment" even if it were the case that the "economic costs of doing so were outweighed by the economic costs of not doing so" because nature has "intrinsic value."
E-some-WDEIV WDEIV-some-E
Therefore, the second group of environmentalists cited have given a non-economic reason as to why the environment should not be destroyed, whereas the first group of environmentalists have given an economic reason as to why the environment should not be exploited.
(B) is CORRECT because it merely restates how the second group of environmentalists feel. The second statement clearly states that some environmentalists believe that destroying the environment is wrong because of the environment's intrinsic value, regardless of the economic implications.
(E) is incorrect because we do not know whether or not the non-economic justification given by the environmentalists cited in the passage is a sound justification or not. This cannot be logically inferred from the passage so (E) is not necessarily true.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
mamazippiAugust 28, 2019
I understand why b is correct. However, I thought that the 'best practice' is to diagram first - before looking at possible answers. Should I instead be reading a-e first? Diagramming this was confusing and time consuming and then I recognized the correct answer without referring back to the diagram.
