Strengthening Arguments

A municipal transit authority recently introduced electric buses on city routes to reduce urban air pollution. City officials claim that expanding this electric bus fleet will significantly improve overall air quality in the downtown area over the next two years. However, critics point out that generating electricity for these buses relies on nearby coal-fired power plants.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the city officials' claim?

Archaeologists studying ancient agricultural settlements along the Zanja River basin found that around 3,000 years ago, crop yields increased dramatically immediately following the adoption of terraced hillside farming. The lead researchers concluded that the construction of terraces was the direct cause of this agricultural surplus, as terraces prevented soil erosion and retained rainfall on cultivated slopes. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the lead researchers' conclusion?

A commercial vineyard introduced autonomous weeding robots designed to eliminate weeds using targeted laser bursts instead of traditional chemical herbicides. After one year of using the robots, the vineyard recorded a 20 percent increase in grape yield per acre compared to the previous year. The vineyard manager concluded that eliminating chemical herbicides in favor of laser weeding directly improved the productivity of the grapevines. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the vineyard manager's argument?

A winery recently released thousands of beneficial predatory beetles into its vineyards to combat vine mites, which damage grape crops. At the end of the harvest season, the winery reported a 20 percent increase in usable grape yield compared to the previous year. The vineyard manager concluded that introducing the predatory beetles was the primary reason for the increased crop yield.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the vineyard manager's conclusion?

A logistics company recently replaced its human-driven delivery fleet with autonomous electric vans in City Y. Over the subsequent six months, management noted a sharp decrease in parcel delivery delays across the city. Management concluded that switching to autonomous electric vans was directly responsible for the improved delivery timeliness. Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports management's conclusion?

To reduce the loss of native pollinator populations, agricultural planners in Region X recommend that almond growers replace synthetic pesticides with a newly developed bio-fungicide derived from soil bacteria. The planners argue that adopting this bio-fungicide will significantly increase total annual crop yields across Region X. They base this claim on field tests showing that orchards treated with the bio-fungicide sustained 40 percent less honeybee mortality than orchards treated with synthetic alternatives.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the agricultural planners' argument?

Coastal towns along Gulf Bay recently enacted mandatory nocturnal light-shielding regulations near beach areas to encourage endangered loggerhead sea turtles to nest. Marine biologists observed a 25 percent increase in recorded turtle nests on Gulf Bay beaches in the season following the mandate's implementation. Consequently, conservationists concluded that the light-shielding regulations were directly responsible for the increased nesting activity along Gulf Bay.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the conservationists' conclusion?

A logistics company recently replaced human inspectors with an automated software system designed to audit shipping manifests for tariff misclassifications. Whenever discrepancies are flagged, the affected containers undergo mandatory physical inspections. Management claims that adopting this software will decrease total vessel departure delays attributable to documentation errors, despite critics pointing out that the automated software flags twenty percent more paperwork discrepancies than human inspectors previously identified.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for management's claim?

Telecommunication firms operating subsea fiber-optic cables currently rely on annual physical inspections by diving teams to detect outer armoring degradation. However, divers can only safely inspect shallow-water segments near coastal landings, leaving deep-sea stretches unexamined. To decrease catastrophic cable ruptures, a major operator plans to replace diving inspections with automated acoustic monitoring. This system emits continuous sonar pulses along the cable's internal core, detecting structural micro-fractures in the outer armoring across its entire length. The operator claims that implementing this technology will reduce the overall number of unexpected cable ruptures.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the telecommunication operator's claim?

Municipal water authorities in a large urban district recently installed high-sensitivity acoustic sensors along major underground distribution conduits to detect structural micro-fractures before major pipe bursts occur. Although installing and maintaining these sensors requires a substantial initial financial investment, utility administrators conclude that deploying the network will decrease the city's total annual water infrastructure repair expenses over the next five years. Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the utility administrators' conclusion?

Six months ago, a maritime freight company equipped its fleet of cargo ships with automated wind sails designed to reduce diesel fuel consumption. Over this period, the fleet recorded only a 2 percent drop in fuel consumption per nautical mile, far short of the manufacturer's advertised 10 percent reduction. Nevertheless, the company's logistics analysts conclude that the wind sails successfully provided fuel savings consistent with expectations.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the logistics analysts' conclusion?

In an effort to increase agricultural production, an agricultural board in a drought-prone province advised tomato growers to replace conventional overhead sprinkler systems with subsurface drip irrigation, which delivers water directly below the soil surface to root zones. The board claimed that adopting subsurface drip irrigation will significantly increase average tomato yields per acre across farms in the province. The board reasoned that because subsurface drip irrigation minimizes surface evaporation, it ensures consistent moisture levels near the plant roots, which is crucial for healthy fruit development.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the agricultural board's claim regarding tomato yields?

Conservators at a national museum suspect that a famous seventeenth-century oil painting suffered discolored fading primarily due to historical exposure to trace hydrogen sulfide gas released by nineteenth-century coal heating systems. To prevent further chemical degradation, the museum plans to install specialized ambient air filtration units designed to absorb hydrogen sulfide gas from the gallery. The head curator concludes that installing these units will effectively halt the ongoing chemical discoloration of the painting.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the head curator's conclusion?

To cut heating costs, the management of a high-rise office complex replaced all single-pane windows with double-pane low-emissivity glass. Although weather conditions over the following winter were identical to those of the previous winter, the building's overall energy consumption for heating increased by 8 percent. The management concluded that the new windows were defective and failed to provide the promised thermal insulation.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the conclusion drawn by the building management?

To reduce fuel costs, a regional cargo airline operating primarily in high-altitude mountainous terrain plans to retrofit its turboprop fleet with newly engineered lightweight winglets. Flight tests conducted at sea level demonstrated that these winglets reduced fuel consumption by 8 percent by minimizing aerodynamic drag. Based on these sea-level test results, executives conclude that retrofitting the fleet with these winglets will significantly decrease the carrier's overall fuel expenditure on its mountain routes.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the executives' conclusion?

A city plans to introduce high-speed automated optical sorting machines at its primary municipal recycling facility to process post-consumer textile waste. Currently, textile recycling is limited because manual sorting cannot efficiently distinguish between pure cotton and synthetic-blend fabrics. City officials claim that deploying these optical sorters will double the annual volume of pure cotton recovered and sold to textile manufacturers. Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the city officials' claim?

To reduce long-term infrastructure expenses, the coastal transit authority of Metropolis plans to install continuous ultrasonic vibration sensors on the underwater concrete pillars of its main commuter bridges. Engineers argue that by detecting micro-fractures in real time, maintenance crews can perform minor localized patch repairs before major structural fatigue occurs, thereby significantly lowering total repair expenditures over the next decade.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the engineers' argument?

To prevent soil degradation in arid farmland, agricultural researchers propose planting salt-tolerant halophytes alongside commercial crops. Halophytes absorb excess sodium ions from topsoil, which the researchers claim will allow commercial crops to absorb soil nitrogen more efficiently and thereby increase overall crop yields within two growing seasons.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the researchers' argument?

Ecologists studying endangered forest elephants in a central African preserve recently introduced an automated acoustic monitoring network to track herd movements via low-frequency infrasound calls. The researchers hypothesized that installing these acoustic sensors at key waterholes would allow them to accurately estimate total elephant population trends across the preserve over time. However, skeptics argued that because elephants frequently travel between waterholes, acoustic detections at waterholes would lead to double-counting individual animals, thereby rendering population trend estimates unreliable.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the ecologists' argument?

To combat urban air pollution, the municipal transit authority of a major city plans to replace its entire fleet of diesel buses with electric buses powered by lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries. Opponents of the plan argue that the frequent fast-charging required during peak operational hours will cause rapid battery degradation, forcing costly battery replacements within three years and rendering the transition economically unviable. However, transit officials maintain that the transition will substantially lower overall fleet maintenance costs over a ten-year period. Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the transit officials' contention?