#5 - Salmon farmer: Farm-raised salmon is preferable to

[Dana D]

Complete Question Explanation

Weaken. The correct answer choice is A.

The farmer's argument is that farm-raised salmon is better than wild for 3 reasons:

1. It's available year round
2. The quality is consistent
3. Farm raised salmon are cheaper

And most importantly, buying farmed salmon will increase the number of wild salmon.

In order to weaken the argument, we can attack any of the reasons the farmer gives for why farm raised salmon is better.

Answer Choice (A). This is the correct answer choice. The most important reason farm-raised is preferable over wild is because eating farm-raised fish is good for the wild population. However, if A is true, then the argument would be weakened, because the food source for the wild fish would be removed.

Answer Choice (B). The farmer says only that quality is consistent among farm raised fish - if anything, this answer is proving his point - some wild salmon is of lesser quality, some is better. You don't have to worry about that inconsistency with farm-raised fish.

Answer Choice (C). Taste is not one of the arguments the farmer relies on.

Answer Choice (D). This reiterates one of the farmer's points in favor of farm-raised fish - the prices are cheaper than wild salmon.

Answer Choice (E). This is yet another reason to prefer farm-raised fish - it strengthens the farmer's argument rather than weakens it.

[theamazingrace]

Is the conclusion that "the best reason to prefer framed salmon is ecological" or "thus increasing their numbers"?

thanks

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Grace,

The conclusion is that farm-raised salmon is preferable to wild salmon. The rest of the passage supports that idea by giving reasons that farm-raised salmon is preferable. The ecological reasons are one of those reasons to support that farm-raised salmon is preferable. We can weaken that conclusion by attacking the assumptions that the consumption of farm-raised salmon will result in multiplying wild salmon. The correct answer choice gives us a reason that even though people aren't eating the wild fish directly, the farm-raised salmon still hurts the wild population by competing with wild salmon for food.

Hope that helps
Rachael