Q32:
Ecologist:
The Scottish Highlands were once the site of extensive forests, but these forests have mostly disappeared and been replaced by peat bogs.
The common view is that the Highlands’ deforestation was caused by human activity, especially agriculture.
However, agriculture began in the Highlands less than 2,000 years ago.
(evidence that, in light of the evidence provided in the second, serves as grounds for the ecologist’s rejection of a certain position. )
Peat bogs, which consist of compressed decayed vegetable matter, build up by only about one foot per 1,000 years and, throughout the Highlands, remains of trees in peat bogs are almost all at depths great than four feet. (the evidence)
Since climate changes that occurred between 7,000 and 4,000 years ago favored the development of peat bogs rather than the survival of forests, the deforestation was more likely the result of natural processes than of human activity.
8月真题
A prominent investor who holds a large stake in the Burton Tool company has recently claimed that the company is mismanaged, citing as evidence the company’s failure to slow production in response to a recent rise in its inventory of finished products.
( the position that the argument as a whole opposes)
It is doubtful whether an investor’s sniping at management can ever be anything other than counterproductive, but in this case it is clearly not justified.
(the conclusion of the argument as a whole)
It is true that an increased inventory of finished products often indicates that production is outstripping demand, but in Burton’s case it indicates no such thing.
Rather, the increase in inventory is entirely attributable to products that have already been assigned to orders received from customers.