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Question

Difficulty: MediumSingle-Sentence Inferences

Consider the following excerpt from an economic history of agricultural mechanization:

"While early twentieth-century historians of technology often credited the rapid adoption of steam-powered threshing machines in eastern England exclusively to acute rural labor shortages, census records from the 1870s indicate that the machinery was adopted at an even higher rate in districts where surplus agricultural labor maintained depressed wage rates."

Which of the following can be inferred from the census records mentioned in the excerpt regarding the adoption of steam-powered threshing machines in 1870s eastern England?

  1. Factors other than acute labor shortages played a role in driving the adoption of steam-powered threshing machines in eastern England.Answer
  2. B
    Agricultural workers in low-wage districts were universally opposed to the deployment of steam-powered threshing equipment.
  3. C
    The low cost of manual labor was the primary factor that originally prompted engineers to invent steam-powered threshing machinery.
  4. D
    Early twentieth-century historians of technology based their theories primarily on evidence retrieved from 1870s census data.
  5. E
    Steam-powered threshing machines completely eliminated the need for manual farm labor in eastern England by the end of the 1870s.

Answer

Factors other than acute labor shortages played a role in driving the adoption of steam-powered threshing machines in eastern England.
The census data show that mechanization occurred at higher rates in districts characterized by surplus labor and depressed wages than in areas characterized by labor shortages. If farms in labor-surplus districts adopted the machinery at high rates, acute labor shortages could not have been the sole driver of adoption. Thus, it logically follows that factors other than labor shortages contributed to adoption decisions.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the target sentence in the passage
The target clause states that 1870s census records indicate steam-powered threshing machines were adopted at an even higher rate in districts with surplus labor and depressed wages compared to areas with labor shortages.
Single-sentence inference requires strict logical deduction from the precise facts presented in that specific claim.
2
Evaluate the logical implication of the census finding
If adoption occurred at higher rates in places where labor was plentiful and cheap, then an acute labor shortage cannot be the exclusive requirement or sole cause for adopting the technology.
Deductively, if event X occurs frequently under condition not-Y (labor surplus), Y (labor shortage) cannot be the sole cause of X.
3
Match the deduction with the valid option
The statement asserting that factors other than acute labor shortages played a role directly aligns with this logical deduction without introducing unstated assumptions.
Strict inference must be entirely supported by the text without unwarranted extrapolation or extreme claims.

Key Concept

Single-Sentence Inferences
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Topics

Single-Sentence Inferences

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