#7 - Late blight is a disease affecting tomato plants that

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[theamazingrace]

I was stuck between D and E. I chose D but I read over E several times. Why is E wrong? I see the same general cause and effect relationship that is present in the stimulus except that the word "treatment" is not used. Doesn't putting calcium in the soil serve as a treatment ?

Thanks

[Robert Carroll]

Grace,

It's worthwhile to pay special attention to why the argument in the stimulus is flawed. A copper solution treats the disease, but that doesn't mean a copper deficiency was the cause of the disease in the first place. The author, though, thinks a copper deficiency was the problem.

If we look at answer choice (E), a calcium deficiency WAS the cause of the brown spots. The "treatment" seems to address the actually known problem - calcium deficiency is the cause of a problem, so calcium will help prevent that problem. That seems reasonable, and isn't at all like what the stimulus says, where there is no establishment of copper deficiency as the cause in the premises.

Robert Carroll