Jordan: If a business invests the money necessary to implement ecologically sound practices, its market share will...

Naz on November 1, 2013

Terry's portion in the answer choices was cut off. We've updated to have the full exchange show up in the answer choices. Sorry about that!

As for your specific question, the question stem here is a Parallel Reasoning question stem.

In the stimulus, Jordan discusses a con of what will happen if a business invests the money necessary to implement ecologically sound practices and a con of what will happen if a business does not invest the money necessary to implement ecologically sound practices. Terry responds by showing how a specific situation happening can alleviate both cons. If consumers demand environmental responsibility of all businesses, no particular business will be especially hurt, so the market share will not decrease and the environment won't be polluted.

(A) is the CORRECT answer choice because Jordan again discusses a con of what will happen if something (it raining) happens and then a con of what will happen if that specific something does not happen. Terry's response then shows a specific situation that alleviates both cons. If they buy a hose and water the garden, then in the case of it not raining, they can still go on their picnic and the garden will get watered.

(B) is incorrect because Jordan is not discussing the cons of one specific thing happening or not happening.

(C) is incorrect because Jordan is discussing the pros of one specific thing happening or not. We are looking for Jordan discussing the cons.

(D) is incorrect because Jordan is not discussing the cons of one specific thing happening or not.

(E) is incorrect because even though Jordan's statement is similar to the stimulus (he is discussing the cons of of one specific thing happening or not), Terry's response is not similar. Terry is not offering a specific situation that could alleviate both cons. She merely explains that she thinks one of the cons is probably not going to happen, therefore the other is more likely.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Shiyi-Zhang on February 11, 2019

How does buying a hose alleviate the cons of raining?

Ravi on February 14, 2019

@Shiyi-Zhang,

Happy to help. It sounds like you might've misread (A). Buying a hose
wouldn't alleviate the cons of raining; buying a hose would alleviate
the cons of it NOT RAINING. The reason is that we can assume that the
hose would be connected to a source of water that would allow Terry
and Jordan to water the garden.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!