Solutions

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Question

Mayor: Migrating shorebirds stop at our beach just to feed on horseshoe-crab eggs, a phenomenon that attracts tourists. To bring more tourists, the town council plans to undertake a beach reclamation project to double the area available to crabs for nesting.

Birdwatcher: Without a high density of crabs on a beach, migrating shorebirds will go hungry because shorebirds only eat eggs that a crab happens to uncover when it is digging its own nest.

Which of the following, if true, would provide the mayor with the strongest counter to the birdwatcher’s objection?

Option A:

Every year a certain percentage of crabs are caught by fishermen as bait for eel traps.

Option B:

Horseshoe crabs are so prolific that given favorable circumstances their numbers increase rapidly.

Option C:

On average, tourists who come to the town in order to watch birds spend more money there than tourists who come for other purposes.

Option D:

The additional land made available by the reclamation project will give migrating shorebirds more space.

Option E:

Some of the migrating shorebirds make only one stop during their migration from South America to Canada.

Difficulty Level

Medium

Solution

Option B is the correct answer.

Option Analysis

Question type: Weaken the argument

Summary of the argument: The mayor argues that an increase in the land area increases the number of crabs and hence the number of birds will also increase. However, the birdwatcher says that it will have a counter effect.

A) This doesn’t give any pointer that either supports the birdwatchers plan or the mayor’s plan.

B) Correct Answer

C) We are not worried about the money spent by tourists.

D) The plan is about an increase in the number of Crabs and not Shorebirds.

E) We are not worried about the number of stops a bird makes.